


Leslie's draft

by sherlylikeswaffles



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Future Fic, Leslie is US president
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 02:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12901719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlylikeswaffles/pseuds/sherlylikeswaffles
Summary: 29 years after their wedding, Ben finds Leslie's originial draft for her wedding vows in the attic of the White House.





	1. A Special Binder

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic during NaNo. Unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to reach 50k words but without NaNo, I'm not sure I would have ever found the motivation and time to really get started on this fic, which had been on the back of my mind ever since I watched Leslie and Ben's wedding for the very first time. This is my longest fanfic ever and I'd really appreciate it if you take the time to leave a comment, preferably on every chapter!  
> I didn't get this beta'd, so I'm sorry for the mistakes.

“This was a first,” Ben Wyatt thought as he looked around in their living room. He was alone in the White House during the weekend. For the very first time since Leslie and he had moved in. Obviously, he was not completely alone. There were still some members of staff and security around but since the President, his wife Leslie, had gone on a personal visit to her best friend Ann, most of the staff had gotten the weekend off as well. Ben knew it had been too long since Ann and Leslie had last had some time to spend alone. It had probably been some time during Leslie's presidential campaign when Leslie and Ben had last been at Ann and Chris's home in Pawnee. Now it was much easier for Ann and Chris to come and visit them in Washington but it wasn't quite the same. In the White House, they were constantly under surveillance. Complete privacy was the one thing that Ben missed the most about his old life before his wife had been elected president and he had become the First Gentleman by default. Other than that, it definitely had a lot of advantages to be married to one of the most important and powerful, if not the most important and powerful person, in the world. For instance, Ben never had to worry about what to wear or what to eat again. He had a personal style adviser and a chef as well.  
Initially, Ben had planned to see Chris while Ann and Leslie were off discussing Jennifer Aniston's skirt length or the advantages of loop scarfs. But Chris attended the Indianapolis marathon this weekend and Ben didn't want to attend a marathon, it would just make him feel bad about himself.  
So Ben was on his own and for the first time in probably years he felt like there was nothing that had to be done immediately. He felt a mild panic as he realized this. Could it really be that there was nothing he had to do? No crisis to be averted? No phone call to make? No new episode of Star Trek to watch? But after he had checked his calender three times and reassured himself that he and Leslie had checked in on the triplets on Thursday, he was sure that he actually had a “day off”. A day to relax and do nothing of importance. A fascinating concept.  
Ben was considering his options, he could rewatch Star Wars or take a walk in the park, when an idea occurred to him. Leslie wasn't home. He could throw away all the useless trash she had brought into the White House with them. Leslie had always been messy and extremely organized at the same time which seemed like a contradiction but was actually just one of the many reasons that made Leslie so special.  
Ever since they had moved in together, she claimed she had gotten better at throwing away stuff but since they had expanded their living space over the decades and were now living in the huge White House, Leslie had never felt the need to go through her old belongings and throw out all the trash she would never ever need again in her life. So she wouldn't even notice when Ben started sorting out and threw a few boxes out. But Ben would feel a lot better. He feared the day some member of stuff might stumble across them and sell them to greedy journalists. Leslie had once send a “top Ben's butt” slide show to the Huffington Post, which had caused a small scandal during the presidential campaign.  
She also had a binder featuring the sexiest pictures of Joe Biden. His wife's obsession with Joe Biden remained a mystery to Ben. Biden's death had been an immense shock for Leslie. She had been in denial for a pretty long time and couldn't stop sobbing through the entire funeral. Even now, she kept a photo of him holding her hand in her office. Although Ben had always admired Biden for his political success and respected his opinions, he never could quite stop to feel irritated around Biden and yes, he had to admit, jealous as well. After all, this man, who was over 30 years his senior had been Leslie's celebrity sex list.  
Ben knew that the binders on Joe Biden and his own butt were not the worst things to be found there. So the possibilities of embarrassment were endless. Not only for Leslie and Ben, but basically for everyone that has ever interacted with Leslie.  
Ben put on his Letters to Cleo t-shirt and a washed out jeans, and left their private rooms. On his way up to the attic, he managed to pass no one. For a moment, he wondered if he should tell someone about his plans. But then he remembered that he had no responsibilities today. Despite that, he had his phone on him, as always.  
He entered the attic and released a heavy sigh. Dozens of boxes and huge piles of binders lay around in the dusty space. Over the decades, Leslie had made at least a couple of thousands of binders. Some had wandered into Pawnee's achieves or remained in some achieves in Indiana. So these were just Leslie's “personal” binders. Meaning, Leslie had made these binders in her free time. The sun was shining through the windows, the dust dancing in the light. Ben walked over to the first window and opened it widely. The fresh spring air started to fill the space and made it easier to start his work. He lifted the cover of the binder which was on top of the pile closest to him.  
“Greg Perkitis” read the first page. The next pages provided detailed information on the former high school student, who Leslie had declared as her arch nemesis. If Ben had not known the whole story, he would have been seriously disturbed and wondered why his wife had a binder on a teenage boy that looked like the belonging of a crazy stalker. He put the binder on the floor, starting a new pile for all the binders that he wanted to destroy.  
Then he opened the next one. This one was about a new initiative for park safety in Pawnee and definitely no longer relevant. It landed on the pile as well. Ben continued to look through the binders. Some of them he just flipped open the cover and decided that they had to be destroyed and others he looked through more carefully. Occasionally he smiled at Leslie's thoroughness or a comment she had made. Sometimes he really wondered if Leslie had ever slept a single night before he met her because why on earth did she have the time to make three drafts of a binder on the murals in Pawnee City Hall.  
After a few hours - it was about noon - he felt like he should take a break and he reached for the last binder of a particularly huge pile. When he opened it, he gasped. Behind the plain red cover was a sheet that was filled with hundreds of hearts in all sizes and colors and in the very middle of it stood just one word: Ben. With shaking hands, Ben turned the page and read the title: “Leslie Knope's wedding vows to Ben Wyatt”. The title was underlined three times. But the last line was a little smudged as if water had dropped on the page. Leslie must have cried as she wrote this, Ben assumed.  
He vaguely remembered that Leslie had said at their impromptu wedding ceremony, that she had a draft of her wedding vows written that clocked at around 70 pages. But somehow it had never come up again. The vows she had said, even though, they had been spontaneous, had been absolutely beautiful and Ben had never believed he needed to hear any more than that. In fact, it would have been enough for him if Leslie had simply said “I love you and I like you” and be done with it. On that day he had just felt like he couldn't wait a second longer to be married to her.  
But now he had found her vows and even though, they had once been written especially for him, he felt like he was invading Leslie's privacy by reading them. Nonetheless, he knew that he had to read them. This was about him. His wife had written these pages about him before she had been his wife and he wanted to know what exactly she had thought about them and their relationship back then. Ben forgot all about his need for a break and leaned against the wall next to the window to read his wife's original wedding vows- over 29 years after their wedding.


	2. The night they got engaged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie writes down what she felt during the night they got engaged.

“Ben, my love,  
I'm looking over at you, sleeping next to me as I'm beginning to write this. You look really cute when you are asleep. Okay, you always look cute but now you can't make me stop looking at you. We had the most amazing sex and you fell asleep right away. It must have been a really long day for you. I know that I should probably try to sleep as well but I'm just too excited! We are getting married! I want to shout it to the whole world.   
I've always known you are perfect but today you outdid yourself. You gave me the best surprise and made the sweetest, most amazing proposal any girl could wish for. To be honest, I was really upset when you told me you might run a campaign in Florida. I had so looked forward to start our lives together, like really living together, coming home to each other every night. Of course, I didn't want to tell you that, didn't want you to make your decision based on my feelings. But I know now that you must have sensed those feelings anyway. And even better, you feel the same way.   
When you came to the house, our house, today, I immediately knew that something big was about to happen. And then you got down on one knee, had the red box- the very same box you gave me with the “Knope 2012” button in it and in that moment everything was simply perfect. I'm sorry, I made you wait but I just had to add this moment to my mental scrapbook. In this mental scrapbook is also the moment we first kissed, the day I won the city council election, my first sleepover at Ann's house...but I'm getting off topic. You said “I'm thinking about my future. I'm deeply, ridiculously in love with you and above everything else I just wanna be with you. So Leslie Knope...” And I interrupted you because I knew that you were gonna ask the question every girl dreams to get asked one day. But as you know, I'm actually not like most girls. I mean I always kinda assumed I would get married some day when I was younger. But I had always been sure that I wanted to become president, go into politics, run for office. Winning elections, those were the kind of moments I dreamed about as a young girl. And as I got older and went on dates with guys, I never found anyone who appreciated that about me. They were either intimidated by my ambitions or they didn't really take me seriously. So I decided that I'd rather give up on men than on my dreams.   
And then I found you. And you made me fall in love with you in a way that I didn't think was possible. You made me dream the really girly things, like what it was like to kiss you and what it would be like to marry you and have kids with you. I was even ready to give up my political goals for you but you wouldn't let me and I'm still so grateful for what you did for me.   
So you gave your beautiful little speech and all I had to do was say yes at the right moment and in my excitement I even managed to screw that up. But in the end, it doesn't matter. I would have said yes even if you had given me a candy ring or no ring at all. Even if you had stumbled in and written the words on the back of receipt.   
It was a shame, though, that the house wasn't ours yet. I had to wait all the way till we got back to my place to get you out of your clothes and touch that cute butt of yours. Which reminds me, I have to add a chapter about your butt to this.   
But for now, I just wanna say I've never been happier than I am now. It really takes all my self control right now not to wake you up and start kissing you all over again but I know that you need your sleep. So I'll just take this positive energy I have right now and continue to write my wedding vows to you. They really have to be perfect.  
Oh my god, we are getting married! I get to plan a wedding, my wedding! Our wedding! This will involve so many color coded binders, late night brainstorming sessions and a lot of organizing. This will be so much fun! I'm telling you right now this is going to be the wedding of the millennium! Of the millennium! Maybe when I finished the vows, I should start on the binder for the wedding ceremony. But first things first, these vows have to be spot on. Ben, you are such a great speech writer. I worry that your vows will be more awesome than mine. I mean I know that it's not a competition but I also know that I don't want to settle for anything but perfect.   
Aw, I couldn't resist myself and stroked your unruly hair. You murmured my name in your sleep. See, it's things like these that make you so irresistible. Maybe I should move downstairs to write this. You keep distracting me with your cuteness. But right now, I can't stand to be apart from you even for a second. Which reminds me, I have to pee. But I really don't want to get up...   
That might actually be the best part about our relationships…, not that I can tell you when I need to pee but...you know that we always want to be around each other. I mean we have proved that we can do the long distance thing and obviously we can survive sometimes without each other. We definitely handled that more gracefully than April and Andy. But with you, I always know what to talk about, I know that you will listen to me, I know that you'll make me laugh and just that you'll be there for me. So I don't worry that I will ever be bored in our forever together. You said forever in your proposal to me, I know it's really cheesy but also really reassuring. There are so many things we don't know about the future. But knowing it involves a forever with you, is definitely very good.   
I'm looking at the ring. It looks super expensive and so pretty! You must have spent a fortune on it. So I just have to wear it forever as well to make it worth the money. It's really classic chic, too. I can't wait to show it everyone. I mean I can't believe you stopped me from calling Ann immediately but you are right it will be a much better effect when I can show her the ring! The diamond sparkles in the light from the bedside table. Other girls will be really jealous of me. I remember that I had a friend in college, her name was Mindy. She got engaged at age 22 to a banker who was ten years her senior. He gave her an engagement ring with not one but three diamonds and I knew that I felt really jealous when she showed it to me because to that point no one had ever given me a single diamond and Mindy had gotten three all at once. But now, as I see my ring, one real diamond is so much better than three tiny ass diamonds. Really, Ben, great pick. I knew that you excelled at a lot of things but now I'll definitely add “taste in rings” to it. You gotta pick out our wedding rings. This goes on my first draft of the wedding planning list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have the luxury of reading a multi-chapter fic that's already finished. But I decided that I don't want to post all the chapters at once...where's the fun in that? Also I really hope to read about your reactions to the chapters in the comments. Depending on the comments, I will schedule the updates.


	3. Let's start at the beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie goes all the way back to the days they were born.

I feel like I should start writing these vows with writing about the beginning of us. Maybe with the day we first met? Or even better, with the days we were both born? Or maybe even before that? When our ancestors were born? I did a lot of research on my own family history and I can name all my ancestors until 1617. But as I have gathered from this one lousy family tree, you showed me once, your family has not been very thoroughly with keeping track of its ancestry. Regarding my research, the first of your ancestors to set foot on this country we both call our home country now in 1832, was your great-great-great-great-great grandfather Theodore Wyatt.   
I'll spare you the details of the many roots of my ancestry in Europe. But I'll just say that I'm very glad that my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather decided to leave his home country Sweden and settled over to Canada, from where his grandson moved down to the United States.   
You, Benjamin Wyatt, were born on November 14, 1974 to Steve and Julia Wyatt, joining your older brother Henry in the family. Later on, came your little sister Stephanie to complete the family. Sadly, your parents got divorced only five years after you were born. Judging from what you have told me about them, I'm sure it was for the best. Growing up, you had to split your time between your parents, spending most of it at your mom's house with your siblings. You were always a smart kid and loved going to elementary school. Middle School not so much, though, because people made fun of you for being a nerd. But you didn't let them stop you. In fact, because you are such a nerd, you first came into contact with politics. You wanted to found a “Middle Earth club” at your Middle School, but they wouldn't let you because they thought that one “nerd club”, the chess club, was already enough for one school. So you wrote a letter to the mayor and complained about the situation. The mayor answered you and you got your club which was the basis for your enthusiasm about politics. As the leader of Partridge's only Middle Earth club, you held a position of power for the first time. And you loved it, you loved being in charge, but also spreading the publicity for your club, organizing events such as a whole weekend of LARPing before it was actually cool. You joined other clubs as well, such as the debate team and model UN and got more and more interested into politics.   
When the mayor was kicked out off office due to corruptions, a different mayor than the one who had so kindly replied to your letter, a friend of yours jokingly suggested you'd make a better mayor than the old men who were running for the office. You thought “why not?!” and decided to become mayor of your home town Partridge, aged 18. It was a time of many anti-establishment movements that favored your election. So you were sworn in as mayor, barely of age, not yet allowed to drink alcohol and definitely not really an adult yet. But you had a vision for Partridge. You wanted to build a huge winter sports complex called Ice Town. However, your ambitions were too big for Partridge and Ice Town bankrupted the city. You got impeached. And ever since, you have done all you could to prove that your are responsible and that you can run for office again someday. You attended Carleton College, where you had a radio show called “Zoot Suit Wyatt” and wrote your first Star Trek fanfiction. After college, you became a state auditor to make sure that no other cities had to go bankrupt. On the job, you met Christopher Traeger, who is your partner and best friend and with whom you have traveled all over Indiana. And that's how your found your way into my beautiful city of Pawnee. But more on our first meeting later.   
Now, I want to tell you how I ended up meeting you. It was the year 1975. In the early hours of 18th January 1975, I, Leslie Barbara Knope, entered this world. My mother is Marlene Griggs-Knope, director of the education department of Pawnee and commonly known as the Iron Cock-Shredder of Pawnee. My father was Robert Knope, who sadly passed away when I was ten. Dad, I really hope you're watching my wedding from somewhere up there and that you are really happy for your little girl. Because of my mother, I entered the world of politics at a very young age. Whenever I could, I would come to city hall and hang out in my mom's office or walk along the corridors and look into the offices, wondering in which one I might end up in. So when I was ten, I made my first campaign ad. It was really cute and as it turned out, it really did help me win the election to city councilwoman. From then one, I knew that I wanted to become President of the United States some day. Maybe not the most modest ambition, but a girl can dream and in this time and age, it's more realistic than becoming a real princess, I'd say. Where are all the eligible princes anyway? Right, in Europe. So no, I much rather become President. But before I become president, I want to be a public servant and help to make my beloved home town Pawnee a better, cleaner and greener place with less obesity and unprotected sex. I still stand to the promises I have made as a ten year old and I still love Pawnee just as much as I did back then.   
But like everyone else, I started out as nothing more than a student, eager to learn and shine. I don't want to brag too much but I did a lot of cool stuff at my school, Pawnee North High School. I was Co-Vice-President of the student body, a position that helped me a lot to learn how to take responsibilities and be a leading figure. As a member of Model United Nations, I made international problem solving my bitch and even nowadays I'm still considered a Model United Nations legend. I was also a member of Key Club, Debate Club, of course, and you can see that it helped me a lot when I had to debate on TV for my position as city councilwoman. Then there was Mock Trial and the political clubs, I was a member of the Young Republicans, the Young Democrats and the Young Independents (I founded that, by the way, because I couldn't decide on only one party). Also I was a member of Drama Club, the Historical Society, Orchestra, Color Guard, and the junior varsity field hockey team. But I have to admit, I wasn't that good at hockey.  
And in the end, I graduated in the top 5% of my class. I went on to study at Indiana University, the only years of my life that I did not spend in Pawnee, where I graduated summa cum laude from the School of Environmental and Public Affairs. But what taught me more than my academic education, where those first years as a public servant. I got to meet so many interesting people and listen to their opinions and problems. It made me realize just how important the work is that we do.   
I started out as an intern and then got hired by Ron Swanson as the deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana. In my time working for the Parks and Rec Department I have initiated a lot of projects, such as the filling of lot 48, the Pawnee Dodgeball league, cleaner parks, more outdoor activities and a concerts and Christmas events all over the city.   
For five years now, I've lead the Pawnee Goddesses club and I teach various classes at the rec center. In 2012, I decided to run for city council and I won. But that happened after you and I met, so I will talk more about that later. Now I'd like to tell you the little story of how we met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a comment!


	4. The first meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben's perspective on their first meeting.

Ben, do you remember the first time we met? I was so incredibly rude to you. I called you a jerk. And an ass. I think in total I insulted you three times within the first day we've met. But I felt really threatened by you and Chris. Mostly by you to be honest because Chris is always so cheerful.  
But even though, I really wanted to hate you, I thought you looked pretty cute right from the start. Like a cute fascist smart ass. I remember that I definitely checked out your butt that day. And I tried to compliment you on your shirt. But then we started talking and things went south. You said you would have to fire people and cut our budget. Then I told you that Pawnee City Hall had feelings and that you are a jerk. You left and preferred to deal with Ron in this matter. Not exactly a meet cute situation. More an enemies to friends to lovers kind of situation.   
So I got home, I tried to call Ann a dozen times and then I got drunk at the Snakehole lounge that night. I talked pretty badly behind your back to Ann as well and I was rude again when I told you that no one wanted you to come to the Snakehole lounge. Rude and likes to get drunk, that must have been your first impressions of me.   
And then the next day, I wanted to apologize to you and I ended up calling you an ass. Really, we did not have the best of starts. But I also told you this: “You may hold my fate in your hands like a small bird”. And looking back at that, I know now two things: First, you are the farthest away from being a jerk than anyone could possibly be. And second, you did change my life, my fate in the best way imaginable. I know you think that I only started to like you after you had paid for the Freddy Spaghetti concert but that's not true. I first started to like you when you asked me if I wanted to run for office someday. That was the moment I knew that you understood me and the moment I realized that you were Benji Wyatt, the cutest 18 year old mayor in history. I had such a crush on you back in your mayor days. But maybe, even back then, when we shared our first beer and chatted about politics, I still had that crush. And over the next months I got to know you better. I got to know what it was like growing up in Minnesota, being mayor at 18, traveling around as a state auditor. Your life sounded pretty fascinating to me as I had always lived in Pawnee. But I also sensed a kind of loneliness in your life, always on the road, never truly home. I really hoped that you would find a home in Pawnee. And now, look at us, we've just leased our first house together in Pawnee. 

 

At this point, Ben took a break and one of his widest smiles ever spread across his face as he remembered his first meeting with Leslie. It had been a day like any other, Chris and he had arrived in a new town. They had to cut the budget, fire people and move on as soon as their work was done. The only unusual thing was that the cuts had to be extremely high because there had been a lot of mismanagement so Ben expected they would stay at least a few weeks. The meeting with the parks department's director and his deputy was just one of many on their schedule. Ben entered the department as unenthusiastically as ever so Chris's show of extreme cheerfulness was even more effective. And it worked brilliantly on Leslie as Ben could see. She looked at Chris with the same admiration most people looked at him, who had just met him. So far, so ordinary. It was definitely not love at first sight but looking back, Ben seemed to remember so many details about this first meeting that he wondered if he had subconsciously always just known how important this meeting was going to be.   
Leslie Knope was special and he wanted to get to know her better. When his attempt at befriending her at the Snakehole Lounge failed, he tried again the next day and they went out for drinks at 10 in the morning. The first time they ever did something alone together.   
He definitely would never have guessed that he would get married to the strong minded lady from the parks and recreation department who called him a jerk and an ass within the first 24 hours of knowing him. But asking her to get a beer, was a wise move. They really started to connect and from then on, he had always looked forward to spend time with Leslie. He had always been pretty good at keeping an emotional distance from the employees of the towns whose budget they audited but when he met Leslie and the parks and rec crew, he couldn't help but start to like them. As he looked at a photo that showed him in the courtyard of Pawnee City Hall early in his time at Pawnee, he wondered what he would tell his former self if he could. Probably, that he should go for it and confess his love to Leslie a lot sooner.   
But in the end, things were good the way they had turned out. He wouldn't want it any other way. He went on with the wedding vows which he had realized after page two were more like a long recount of their time together than actual wedding vows. Everyone would have fallen asleep during the ceremony if Leslie had really said all of that. Nonetheless, Ben was incredibly grateful that this draft existed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy and let me know what you think!


	5. The story of Leslie and Ben_Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their story from the summer of the government shut-down to their first kiss.

Over the summer of the government shut down I continued to annoy you as best as I could. These months of not working were really one of the hardest I ever had to go through. And at some point, I felt like you actually didn't mind me showing up at your office all the time that much. I got to introduce you to many more great things about Pawnee, like J. J.s Diner and Ramsett Park.  
And then we were finally back at work and I could persuade you to let us bring back the Harvest Festival. You put so much effort into it even though your job was not on the line like ours were. Apart from me, I had never met anyone who worked this hard. Most people I work with slow me down but you actually made me work faster. So it really sucked when I got the flu. It completely knocked me out which I refused to accept. But thanks to that, I got to taste your chicken soup for the first time. And it was really delicious. You made it for me when Ann demanded that I stayed at the hospital. You know me now better and it does no longer surprise you that I refuse to get sick but back then, I think I freaked you out a little. I was so sick and somehow I still made it through the meeting with the Chamber of Secrets...uhm commerce. Thanks for still making fun of that, by the way. I'm not sure if I hallucinated that part but I think you offered to give the presentation instead of me and I suggested you should do a rap? Anyway, it was really sweet of you that you made me chicken soup. I never asked you how you did it. You were still staying at that hotel at that time, weren't you? But to be honest, I was much happier about the waffles you brought me. I just really wanted to eat something sweet in that moment and chicken soup sounded too healthy for me. But once you were gone and I had eaten up all the waffles, I decided I should at least try the chicken soup, after all you had put a lot of effort into it. And damn, it was so good. That you are an excellent cook is just another of the many reasons that make you such a good boyfriend and even better husband.

I remember the first time I felt like you might love Pawnee as well. It was at the public forum concerning the time capsule. You had offered me that I could blame the mess on you because we both expected you'd be leaving soon. And you looked at all these passionate Pawneeans and you told me that they are “weirdos who care”. That was so sweet. And it gave me the idea to put the DVD of our meeting into the time capsule. So you weren't blamed in the press after all because this idea was awesome and Shauna Malwae-Tweep wrote a great article about it. I still have it in my binder of good news articles. And I'm really glad you didn't get blamed. I mean you had it pretty bad on the day of the Media Blitz but at least no one had any hard feelings against you and you could stay in Pawnee forever. 

I've never known a white man, who has never committed any crimes, who is this afraid of cops. So of course, I didn't get why you were acting so weirdly around all the cops at the party and especially toward Chief Trumple. I now know that of course and I try to avoid any interaction with cops when you're present. But you did great when you talked to Trumple and got the cops to volunteer at the Harvest Festival. As you later told me, that was also when you found out that I used to date a cop and sneakingly inquired if I was single. And I first learned about your obsession with calzones, too. It's still true that “they are pizza that's harder to eat” but they are definitely not pointless. And can be very delicious, especially if you make them. 

I felt so, so sorry for you on the day of the media blitz. I mean you told me about your time as a mayor and I knew how much it haunted you. But these terrible media people couldn't give you a break. Luckily, in the end it all turned out great. And it made me like you even more. You know why? I had been a little intimidated by you...you seemed so confident, so capable of your job that I had never really seen your weak side. And seeing that, how cute and fluttered you were, it made me see you more as someone I really cared about.

So I wanted to make sure that you started to enjoy your time in Pawnee, even when I wasn't around. The reason why Tom invited you to the Snakehole Lounge had been me. I thought it was about time you made some friends apart from me in City Hall. But obviously I didn't tell you that. You really managed to impress Tom when you sprayed his disgusting cologne into Dennis Feinstein's car. And impressing Tom is really not an easy thing to do. From that day on, I could always tell Tom whenever he said that you were too boring or too nerdy, “remember that time he sprayed Tommy Fresh into Dennis Feinstein's car?”. Isn't that the kind of legacy one wants to live up to? Anyway, I was really glad that my friends became your friends as well.

The Harvest Festival was the biggest and also most successful project in my life. So far. I hope that even bigger projects are yet to come. But it would have been nothing without you. First you gave us the okay to actually do it and then you put so much work into it as well. We really got closer over the preparations of the Festival. We developed our secret handshake after a long night of going through contracts for the vendors. I still got it. I wonder why we don't do it anymore. It was a really cool handshake. Did you know that after that one handshake I realized for the first time that I would really like to kiss you? At some point during the preparation for the Harvest Festival, you turned from nice coworker to super cute dork that I wanted to make out with. But I was also kind of confused because I hadn't had a crush in a while and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. And it nearly broke my heart to see you so upset about the curse and see you leaving. The curse was lifted and we were closer than ever. It was such a great day.

After the Harvest Festival was over I was worried that we would no longer spend as much time together. So I invited you to come camping with us, even though, objectively speaking, that was the only real reason why you had to come. And you came. By the way, did I ever tell you that Ron said to me after our first meeting with you: “What is a not gay way to ask him to go camping with me?” So it's pretty funny that he ended up camping with you just a few months later. I told you my fears about never making anything better than the Harvest Festival and you told me that you believed that I could. It has always been so easy to talk to you...even about the big stuff. I was really glad you were there and when I presented my ideas I really tried to include some that would insure we got to work closely together again. 

When you told me that you had gotten a job offer to stay in Pawnee, I was overjoyed. I really wanted you to stay. But I was afraid to tell you so because I didn't want to influence your choice by my crush on you. Also I was never good at being selfish. If I had been selfish, I would have told you immediately to stay. But instead I told you to make a pros and cons list. And then, do you remember our conversation at April and Andy's wedding? I do. A huge weight had been lifted off my chest when you told me that you decided to stay. You had become a constant in my life by then and I didn't want to imagine my life without you. I'm not sure if I had already been in love with you back then...but I definitely think that I was in the process of falling in love with you. And seeing April and Andy get married, had really made me wonder when the time would come for me. When we finally got together, you showed me your pro and cons list: my name was in all caps on the pro side. 

I might not remember the exact moment when I fell in love with you. But I do remember the exact moment when I knew that you were the one. It was the day we first met on the bench in front of the wildflower mural. I had asked you out in the morning of that day but you had acted really weirdly around me and ran off into an office that wasn't even yours. You already knew about the stupid rule that coworkers weren't supposed to date and you tried to keep your distance from me. I was really frustrated by this whole situation, especially since I didn't know your motivation behind your behavior and interpreted it like you just didn't like me back. Ann came by in my office and tried to cheer me up. She made me set up a profile on this online dating website. And as we filled out the form about me, she asked me about my favorite place. I told her that my favorite place was the bench in front of the wildflower mural on the second floor. Ann was surprised and wanted to know if I might not prefer a real meadow or some other stupid place but I insisted on the wildflower mural. And then, in the evening of that very day, you suggested we should meet on this bench. I don't believe in coincidence in this case. This was fate. And in that moment I knew that you were my soul mate.   
But sadly, that was also the day Chris told me about the stupid rule. It made me understand your behavior but it also made me wish for the first time ever that I had a different job. It was a frustrating time, being close to you and never being able to be really close to you. I was especially pissed when they wanted to destroy Jerry's painting of me. This painting had been the only thing in months that had made me feel really good about myself, made me feel like there was nothing I couldn't do. I'm still positive that you sneaked a peak after I left it at April and Andy's even though you claimed you didn't. It's still kinda shocking but Jerry got my breasts exactly right. At least, they were the way they looked back then, before I had them filled up with milk for the triplets and then sucked out by them. I still have that painting, we definitely have to find a place to hang it up in our new home. Chris tried to set you up with someone else, a tall brunette, if I remember correctly. He claimed you dated those exclusively and you disagreed. So I told him that you deserved a real goddess. And the look you gave me erased all my doubts that our feelings weren't mutual. But still, this dumb rule existed!

It seemed like a time of stupid rules. One of them being the rule that kids from Pawnee were no longer allowed to play at the park in Eagleton. So I took up the fight against one dumb rule I thought that I could actually change to compensate for the powerlessness I felt because of our situation. You got to meet Lindsay Carlise Shay at her worst. I hope, Ben, that you can live with the fact that your future wife has been arrested and spent a night in prison, even though it was a really nice prison. But I think you finally got to understand my hatred for Eagleton and it might have made you understand me a little better as well. In the end, Lindsay and I had a few beers after we buried the hatchet and now we occasionally meet again and talk about old times. Unfortunately this was not the only fight I had with one of my friends.

Ann and I got into a huge fight which was partly because of you. She said that I should stop being so hung up on not getting you and I was mean to her because she had so many meaningless dates. Obviously we both just wanted the best for each other. At that point, Ann was the only one who knew that I liked you. She later told me that she told you that and suggested you'd take me prom. If it just had been that easy.   
And then we went on a road trip. Just before our meeting with Chris where he told us about the road trip we had a very flirty conversation that Ann claimed had “the most sexual tension in a conversation about government documents she had ever seen”.   
Of course, I realized how hard it would be not to kiss you on that road trip and I consulted Ann as I always do in times of distress. Beautiful, wonderful Ann was really rooting for us and wanted me to seduce you right there. But then I persuaded her to help me anti seduce you. I put on my least seductive clothes and made a special road trip mixed tape so that we would be able to keep our hands off each other. But sneaking Ann had added a love song into the mix. You touched me in the car, just a quick brush against my cheek but I nearly would have kissed you in that moment. Until the Mandarin instructor broke us apart.   
And then I tried to get this photographer to join us for dinner because I knew I could no longer hold it together if I were alone with you. We had dinner and you started to say these sweet, sweet things. I got up to call Ann of course. She encouraged me to make out with you but then I told her to read a letter that I had written for myself out to me. I argued in this letter that my job was just too important and that I couldn't make you loose your job. But in the end, I came to the conclusion that I just really wanted to make out with you. So I hung up the phone and walked back to our table, my mind set on kissing you. But then there was Chris and ruined the evening.   
Later I tried to rationalize it and tell myself that it was for the best but actually all I did the next day was wondering what it would be like to kiss you. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to wait too long to find out. We kissed. We made out. We had sex for the first time. Usually, I ruin first dates but with you...I already knew you so well...I wasn't scared at all. I usually also don't have sex on the first date but I just had wanted you for so long that I didn't feel like we should wait any longer. But the great thing about our first night was that you would have waited, you didn't rush it but it simply felt so natural, so right...Ben, I'll have to talk more about this later but for now I just want you to know that you were the best sex I ever had. And I will ever have for the rest of my life but I'm not gonna complain about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are looking for a sign why you should write a comment on this fic, this is it! Please let me know what you think!


	6. The story of Leslie and Ben_Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the events of the Bubble to their meeting in the Smallest Park.

Looking back at it now, I think it's a hilarious story that my mother hit on you back in the days when our relationship was still a secret. But when it happened, I was freaking out! I hate to admit it but your disastrous first encounter with her was totally my fault. I really don't remember why on earth I would tell you that my mom was a Filipino women I barely knew. But I'm still in awe that you managed to learn all this info about my mom and impress her so much that she felt like hitting on you. And even though there was a lot of awkwardness involved in this story, I was ultimately really glad that I could tell my mom about you. She never approved of any of my former boyfriends...I always thought that that was just the way a mother is supposed to react. But I guess, just like me, she was just waiting to meet you.   
The day of Lil Sebastian's funeral was a very emotional and stressful day for all of us. I mean Lil Sebastian was such a cute mini horse and he had to leave this planet way too soon. But it was an honor to have made his acquaintance and I'm sure that even with our mishaps, he still really appreciated the funeral service we made for him. It had been really difficult to keep my hands off of you when I had known that you liked me too but I couldn't have you. But it was even worse when we actually started to go out and still couldn't kiss each other in public, hold hands or just look at each other longingly. We were so close to getting caught that day. But we made it through.  
I know I should have told you immediately about my city council campaign but you know how I am. Being an adult and dealing with consequence is so hard! It was so much easier, simply to pretend that everything was fine. I really wanted to break up and I didn't expect you would be the one who had to do it. But then you gave me an L shaped eclair and I couldn't do it. I felt so terrible that night that I just ate the whole eclair and cried. So we broke up and I thought it was forever and even though it was for the right reasons, it was so hard. No, really I don't think I can talk about that any more than necessary. I had a lot of awful break-ups but ours was the worst because it was out of necessity and not because we had stopped loving each other. I even tried to imagine for a few seconds if it was easier just to hate you but how? There was no reason to hate you. You have done everything right and you made it possible for me to fulfill my lifetime dream. But going back to being friends like nothing had happened turned out to be impossible for me.

My first way to deal with this was to keep myself extra busy. Luckily that wasn't too hard at first because we had to fight for our budget in the “Battle Royale” and save Ron from Tammy One, who planed to audit Ron. I mean can you imagine Ron Fucking Swanson and getting audited by the state? The state? His worst nightmare, so he needed all the help he could get. Tammy One was so intimidating, it was scary. And the effect she had on him, scarier than Tammy Two. And that bitch is crazy. So I had enough on my plate. And the I brought in all the Tammys and things got really rough. In this process to battle for Ron's soul, I drank poison and got super drunk. Not your usual kind of battle, but still worth it because we got Ron back. In the meantime, you spent a lot of time at Entertainment 7twenty helping Tom, which was another reason why we didn't see each other much and it was an okay time to cope.   
Then I published my book on Pawnee. You and the team helped me with all the fact checking and we got to interact a little more. It really made me miss you. But I tried to stay focused at the task at hand. From what Tom told me, you had a crazy dinner with Joan Callamezzo. It sounded hilarious the way Tom told it, but I would have preferred to have heard this story from you. The fact that I was born in Eagleton really depressed me and I had desperately wanted to talk to you about it. You are great at making me feel better.   
In the end, Chris gave me some helpful advice, I got a sticker from Joan's book club and I've sold a few hundred copies of my book. I know you still kept the one I signed for you...I wanted to write more, wanted to write how much you mean to me and that I still loved you, but I didn't dare to, so I only signed it with my name and wrote: “To Ben”. So if you want, I can get you a personal seven pages long inscription as well.   
We continued to stay busy and not see much of each other for the next weeks. Ann, April and I lead the camp for the Pawnee Goddesses and we had to overcome some difference with the Pawnee Rangers and Ron. In the end, Ron admitted that my club was better and girls and boys were both allowed to join either the Pawnee Goddesses or the Swansons. It was a fun trip and great to get out of the city for a while. We didn't talk much during that time but Donna told me that she and Tom took you out for their “Treat yo self” day, which I thought was really sweet of them. Donna also asked me if I had known that you had been seeing someone. I had to lie straight to her face. But only then, did it occur to me that you had no one to talk to about our break-up. I had told Ann about you from the very beginning and Ron had figured it out as well, so I could talk to both of them about my feelings. But your best friend, Chris, was the last person, you could tell anything about us.   
Eventually more people around us started to notice that you were feeling down during that time. I noticed it as well, of course, but I knew that there was nothing I could do, only make it worse.  
But you refused to talk about it. April told me that you got into a pretty nasty fist fight with Andy. Although Andy's broken nose was totally unnecessary, I was glad to see that you got along so well with my friends and colleagues. You had told me once that I had been one of the main reasons why you had decided to stay in Pawnee and I was afraid you would change your mind and leave Pawnee altogether. But the more you got to know the people around City Hall and had a social life that sadly didn't involve me, the more it looked like you really considered Pawnee your home as well.   
I was so jealous of Shauna Malwae-Tweep just because she had the possibility to be with you that I didn't have. I remember that I said to Ron that night when the Zorpist celebrated yet another end of the world: “If the world was really ending tomorrow, I would want to spend this night with Ben.” But Ron reminded me that the world was not ending and that I would have to face the very real consequences the next day. I ended up spending most of the night with you anyway because I took you on this really crazy road trip just to keep you from hooking up with Shauna. Which I now know, you never would have done anyway. Or so I sneakingly checked.

But even though I finally realized what it truly meant that the romantic part of our relationship was over, I still struggled a lot with the fact that we were just friends, just coworkers really because as you repeatedly told me, us spending time together alone was very painful. I don't remember exactly how we had gotten to the topic but some time during our first weeks of dating you mentioned how much you enjoyed Model UN at high school. So when I got the opportunity to help out at Pawnee Central, the fact that I was a huge fan of Model UN myself was just one part of the reason why I wanted to do it. I wanted to have the opportunity to do something together with you that excited us both. And it worked. At least in the beginning. We did a great job setting everything up. But then my campaign advisers came in between our plans. Looking back on it now, it was really unfortunate that they showed up. I get now that you must have felt horrible when I abandoned our Model UN for campaign stuff. It must have felt like I was breaking up with you and my commitment to you all over again. At that time, however, I was so busy being mean that I totally overlooked your feelings on this.  
We could definitely have found a better way to deal with this than scream at each other in front of a hundred high school kids and disgrace the honorable nations of Denmark and Peru. But we are both very passionate people. We had a very grown up conversation about our relationship and how we would try to remain friends. But as I soon found out, that wasn't enough for me. I missed you like crazy. Ann had told me after she had broken up with Mark that she just didn't feel like she had ever missed him and that love was supposed to feel that way: That you miss the other person even though they have only been gone for like twenty minutes. With you, I've always felt that way. And during the weeks after our “break up” I even missed you when you were in the same room with me. It was the worst feeling in the world.   
I remember the night we got back together as probably the happiest night, after this one, of my life. The thought of not spending any more time working with you, talking to you, laughing with you had been so depressing. I did a lot of irrational stuff but the steamrolling I did back them was really some crazy shit. I can't believe I got people to protest this tiny, little park. Just last week I walked by the smallest park, sat down on the bench and thought of you. I even tried to call you but you were busy. I'd like to think that we will come back to the smallest park after certain millstones in our relationship and look back at that night that reignited the light between us. I had been really nervous that night when I waited for you at the smallest park. Leaving only one voice mail seemed really like nothing but I resisted the urge to call you again and you did show up. I gave my speech, fearing that this might actually be the very last time I was alone with you. But just as I truly realized what I was saying, I decided that no job in the world was worth loosing you. So I said “screw it”. And in that split second when you walked up to kiss me, I knew that I had done the right thing. We had the best “we just got back together” sex that night. And it felt so liberating to sit down in Chris's office and hold on to your hand for support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy and leave a comment!


	7. The story of Leslie and Ben_Part Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the trial to the day Leslie won the city council election.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy and please leave a comment!

Ben, you have done many amazing things for me during our relationship but I think the fact that you gave up your job so that I could keep mine was the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me. Except maybe my mother, she gave birth to me after all. But yeah, after that, it was you. I didn't quite believe that I could be so happy as to deserve you.   
Ethel Beavers is still pissed that we made her read our declarations of love out loud but actually that day, I would have loved to shout it to the whole world. Looking back, I wonder why we didn't say I love you to each other before that because right now I can't really remember what it was like not to be in love with you. But I guess that we didn't want to rush it and then our relationship had ended before it had really begun. So now we have an official government record state how much we love each other...which is really the only way I would want it to be stated. 

So let the record state once again (I'll make sure we have an official typist for our wedding ceremony) that I love Ben Wyatt, I love him with all of my heart.   
Ben, you and I truly are not made for the quiet life. I suffered terribly from my two weeks of suspension. And I got lucky that it turned out to be less than two weeks. So I really know you went through a bad time when you gave up your job for me. I couldn't stay inactive for long, so I had to take action as a citizen. See a public forum from the other perspective. It was fun but not nearly as satisfying as doing the real stuff.   
It's a good thing, though, that I hired you as my campaign manager. I'm sorry, babe, but your claymation movies really weren't that good. And your calzones are really delicious but your talents were better invested into politics. So I'm really glad you ran my campaign. I couldn't have done it without you. I hate this sentiment when people ask women “does she want to have it all?” but back then, I had it all and I felt really like I had all the power in the world.  
Admittedly, we had our disagreements concerning how to run this campaign. The biggest one was when you wanted to go extremely negative on the campaign ad and I refused to listen to your advice. Because it was bad advice! I get that you meant well but that ad was so negative, so not me. So we came up with a solution that was fine with both of us. And I mean we ultimately won the election, so we made the right call. My ad was really cute and it still made Bobby Newport look very incompetent. That was the first time I tackled you down...I'm not sure it will be the last tackle of our relationship through. 

I called you weak because you were easily taken down. But when it comes to punching, you're pretty badass. You punched a guy for me! Which is so impressive! I have to be honest, I didn't know you had that in you but it was so awesome. Even though I usually condemn violence under any circumstances, I approved of that punch. That guy was the worst. I was so turned on by the way you just punched him and we just had to make out. But seriously, what I got from that moment is that you are not only a gentle, understanding man but that you will always defend me, no matter what. I mean I've always been that kind of girl who is proud that she can defend herself and doesn't need no man but seeing you punch that guy made me think: “Screw feminist ideals and effective anger management, sometimes you just gotta let your boyfriend punch the people that piss you off.”   
Our first Valentine's day was definitely the weirdest ever. I mean Tom and Ann!? Ann and Tom?! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. I've always excelled at making presents and obviously Valentine's day is one of the biggest and most important days for me, right next to Galentine's Day, of course. I had this whole big scavenger hunt planned for you. You did complain later that the clues were too hard but come on, really? It was a piece of cake compared to someone of the scavenger hunts I had planned for our Pawnee Goddesses. And those are kids, Ben, kids! In the end the scavenger hunt didn't matter as much as discovering that Ann went on a date with Tom. I don't even know what we did afterward? But I guess we had amazing sex and you made me waffles for breakfast.

Another weird anecdote in our lives is definitely the time that you got handcuffed to a pipe in a men's bathroom by my ex-boyfriend. The only stranger occasion where handcuffs were involved had to be when Kelly, the Twilight fanatic had cuffed himself to the pipe in my office. Dave says he likes you now, I think he was mostly impressed by the fact that you punched that guy for me. I don't really know why it was so important for me that Dave liked you too. I guess I just want everyone to like you because I like you so much. But it was definitely not one of my best life choices when I invited Dave to have dinner with us. Obviously, I didn't know that he was still in love with me but it's always awkward when exes are involved. And you must have been so scared because Dave's a cop. So I appreciate it even more that you stood your ground and told Dave off. I never had two guys fight over me before. It was a civilized fight on your side, sure, but Dave had this dirty move and handcuffed you! I told Dave that he could no longer be in my life if he behaved like that and convinced him how great you are. So it all ended well. With double endorsement.   
Jerry's sweet sixteen party didn't really end well at all. It was a complete mess and that was mostly my fault. I really tried to do it all that night and I failed...spectacularly. But I always believed that sleep and rest were only for the weak. I worked over 100 hours during that time and still didn't realize that I needed to stop. Eventually, Ron managed to convince me to “whole ass” this one thing instead of “half assing” two things, neither getting properly done. And I also didn't really get to spend enough time with you. Hell, I even spent one night sleeping on Jerry instead of sleeping next to you. 

You remember that night when you got really lucky...the day when I got drunk and we had the best of luck but ultimately the tape was lost at the airport and no one saw me give that drunk interview.   
You got so lucky that night because you had worked so hard to make my campaign a success. I might not have told you how much I appreciated it but really, we would have ruined everything if it weren't for you. You had been really strict that day but I get that you only wanted the best for me and my campaign. So I really should not have gotten drunk that day. It wasn't fair to you but I think that there's no point in life if you don't have some fun. Even during difficult times. I had been afraid that we had lost fun Ben on the way to winning this election. But that night, fun Ben was definitely back! And hot Ben, what we did that night…

I wonder what pet we should get? A dog or maybe a cat? Puppies are so cute. But you need to walk them. Cats eat whatever they get, run around in the neighborhood but come back to cuddle you. Maybe you have a preference after you lived with over 30 animals for a while? I have to admit adopting a few dozen animals from the shelter on a whim was not one of my most thoroughly considered ideas. But animals are so cute! It was a tough time...I didn't want to cut the Parks budget, I didn't want the animal shelter to get closed and I didn't want Ann to loose her job. And then I had to admit defeat and let Jen have a huge positive headline for Bobby. But we found a solution, not the best but acceptable. We dealt with this crisis like a true power couple! 

We really hit it off under weird circumstances: First we had to date in secret, then we had to run a city council campaign and then we were faced with a long distance relationship. But we made it through...even stronger now. But yeah, definitely not the easiest circumstance to form a relationship. I debated Newport in my sleep as you told me. And you twisted and turned around, worrying that you were not as good as Jen Berkeley. So we had some tough weeks with even less sleep for me than usually. Even though, I did cut back time in Parks and Rec just as Ron had told me to. The day of the debate was big. I never had a problem with giving public speeches or appearing in the media. Unlike some people, right babe? But still, this debate was a huge deal and even for me a new territory. But you managed to make me calm, you knew just the right words to say to me. I debated the hell out of that debate and it was a turning point in the campaign. 

I still imagine sometimes that it would be really awesome if we lived in a tour bus. Wasn't that day on the tour bus super fun? I mean apart from the “Nick Newport Senior died” stuff? When I run for president, I'll definitely get a tour bus, too! You have been warned, Wyatt.   
What can I say? We won the election. It was not me, it was us. And it was most definitely impossible without you. You had so much faith in me that you didn't even write a concession speech. I mean I would never have been able to read it without crying but still how could you be so sure? How? After all we had to go through, it seemed like the perfect happy ending.


	8. The story of Leslie and Ben_Part Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie's perspective on their love story from "Win, Lose, or Draw" to "Halloween Surprise".

But then you got that job offer in Washington. I know my immediate reaction was that I didn't want you to go. But at the same time, I knew you had to go. You gave me everything, you made it possible for me to achieve my dream. I had to help you to get yours. And so I talked to Ann, as I always do in times of crisis and told you to go. I know now that it was definitely the right decision.   
My first trip to visit you in Washington turned out worse that I had expected which was absolutely not your fault. You were amazing. You made it possible for me to meet so many people from my list. But being in big, old Washington, made me realize how small I was. How insignificant my work was compared to what they do in Washington. I had to hand in a report and it turned out there were so many Pawnees. Not even my hometown, my Pawnee, had felt special anymore. But I had to face the truth. Pawnee might be the center of my world. But it was not the center of the whole world. Washington was the place were really important things happened and I couldn't have been prouder that you worked there and got to meet all these important people. I really hope we are going to live in the White House some day. That would be so awesome. But for now I'm quite content with where I am.  
Even though, I had a hard time in my first month as city councilwoman.   
First there was this whole trouble with the soda tax. Pawnee has such a high diabetes rate and I had to do something about it. Especially since Ann showed me with a very powerful image just how much sugar was in these sodas. I get that sugar is delicious -so delicious- but it had to stop at some point. But then Sweetums said they would lay off people if I got this law passed. And I had to figure a way out of this mess because I didn't want to betray my conviction but I also didn't want people to hate me because I got them fired. The smart solution to this would have been if I had just gone home, slept over it for a night and then made the right decision anyway. But I ended up getting a huge, child-sized (the size of a liquified two year old, not the size appropriate for a child) mixed soda and got super high on all the sugar. Eventually I threw up during the council meeting and my body hated me for quite some time because of that.  
Ann tried her best to stop me from this behavior but I know that I would have needed you to stop me. So I made the bill pass and I'm pretty sure that I gained some enemies. That's just politics, I guess. I hope you enjoyed everything that I sent you in my first 12 care packages. I didn't want you to get starved over there in Washington or even worse, forget about me. Just kidding, I know you didn't forget me and I even got a care package from you as well. Just one, but I know that you tried your hardest to match it with my gift giving skills.   
Remember when I showed you Jeremy Jamm without his trousers on by accident because I wanted to show you my cool private bathroom? Yeah, well I no longer have this bathroom but instead the office I work in now and I'm fine with that. The story behind why I got this office instead is unfortunately a really annoying one. It's all Councilman Jamm's fault through. Except for one thing he did, I'm grateful. He destroyed my perm. It was definitely not his intention to help me with pushing me into a swimming pool but the water did the trick and I got rid of the perm.   
I'm glad you didn't get to see me on the day we passed the “Sun in the Fun” act because I actually had half of a perm for a few hours. It did definitely not look as great as I hoped it would. Ann had not been around either and without either of you to stop me, I tend to make terrible decisions. Jamm is the worst councilman ever, and the standards aren't really that high in Pawnee to be honest. But I managed to pass the “Fun in the Sun” act and I made these kids from the swim team really happy. And ultimately I showed them that the government doesn't suck. At least most of the time. My fight with that jackass Jamm even got me so far as to say that the government sucks which is really extreme for me. I could have really used your calming hugs and advice there.   
The same was the case when I wanted to teach sex ed to seniors. Seniors in life that is. Apparently our law forbids it which is totally stupid. Seniors do have sex, a shocking number of them, almost all of them and of course, teaching them abstinence only sex ed is pointless. Everyone knows that, you would think. But the polls disagreed with me and common sense. Most Pawneeans actually approve of abstinence only, so that's what I tried, really after I got the warning, I tried to read out from that awful pamphlet that Marcia and Marshall Langman had given to me. But no one cared for that bullshit. I'm not kidding, an old lady asked me to show me how to use a condom. Just another antiquated law to get rid off but unfortunately those are really piling up. But talking about sex to seniors made me realize one thing: There's no expiring date on having a great sex life. So that's another thing to look forward to as we grow old together.   
It was really hard without you here. I mean we skyped nearly every day. I got to see your butt but I didn't get to touch it. That was what I missed most...not really your butt, although I missed it a lot but I missed the most not being able to touch you, to fall asleep next to you and to kiss you awake at six a.m. So yes, I cannot tell you enough how glad I am that you decided to come back to Pawnee and stay with me. To marry me. Ben, I love you so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. Next up is Ben's reaction to Leslie's summary of their love story. It would be awesome if you could leave a comment!


	9. Ben's thoughts on his adorable wife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben's perspective on their love story.

Ben had even more tears in his eyes now. Reliving the early stages of their relationship up to the day they got engaged was wonderful. Leslie hadn't missed a single detail. And even though, over the years, Leslie and he had retold these stories over and over to each other, it was still touching the way she wrote them down on the night of their engagement. With so much care and love for him and all the details. Ben had often wondered what had been the exact moment when he realized that he was falling in love with Leslie Knope. But he just couldn't pinpoint it back to one single moment. It was like John Green had said “you fall in love the way you fall asleep. Slowly and then all at once.”

Ben remembered his “all at once” moment. It had been during the Harvest Festival, when Leslie had lifted the curse off of him and she hugged him. That was the moment that he realized that he was deeply, ridiculously in love with her. Of course, he had had no clue if she liked him back and just pretended like it was a stupid crush that will probably go away soon. But it never did. 

Ben too had never believed in soul mates. He had believed that after Ice Town he was simply out of his luck in life. He hadn't given up on love or on his career, he just learned the hard way that it hurts a lot to aim too high. So he felt like it would be okay to find someone, someday and he never imagined he would feel this way about that someone. As he had said during their wedding, he hadn't realized that he had all this time just been wandering around on his search for Leslie. 

As Chris had claimed, he only had dated tall brunettes before Leslie. That was just a weird coincidence, he argued because Leslie was exactly his type, petite, blonde, beautiful and tall enough that he didn't have to bend down too much to kiss her. 

And of course, they had kept Jerry's painting. Not in a public space, though, but hidden behind a curtain in their walk-in-closet. Occasionally, Ben sneaked a peak when he went in there to change. Even though, he still thought of Leslie as the most beautiful woman on the planet, he just felt like Jerry had managed to capture her beauty in her absolute prime. 

When Leslie had showed up in a jogging suits for their road trip, he had immediately known that something was up. And when they had started to listen to her ridiculous road trip mixed tape, he had realized that she was just trying her hardest to kill the mood and make sure nothing would happen between them. Realizing this, he also knew that it was for real. Leslie Knope liked him back. He had not been wrong about the signs then after all. And there had been so many of these small signs that made him believe that Leslie liked him back. And it really had felt like high school all over again. Did she like him or did she not? Did she just smile extra sweetly at him? Did she just punch him playfully on purpose? Was this compliment supposed to be flirty? Did she just check out his butt? And did she not most definitely refer to the “rule of them not being allowed to be dating” when she says that she was annoyed by all these rules lately?

Ben constantly wondered what it all meant. And it was especially difficult to figure this out because this was Leslie Knope. Leslie was usually nice to everyone. Leslie always went out of her way to make people's lives better. So maybe just because she cared about Ben, it didn't have to mean that she was in love with him. He went back and forth. On some days, he was 100% positive that Leslie liked him back and on other days, he felt like maybe she didn't like him at all and was just too nice to say anything. 

But then Ann told him that Leslie liked him and he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest. “Leslie likes me back!” was all he could think about for the next 24 hours and every smile, every look or conversation between them felt like it was charged with new meaning. After Chris had assigned them to their road trip, Ben made a plan. He had to tell Leslie that he liked her. He just couldn't stand it any longer and even though, he had never intentionally broken any rules and had definitely never, ever broken any laws, he felt like now was his moment to be bold. In Indianapolis, they were alone and Chris or anyone else they knew wasn't around to report on them. It was the perfect opportunity to confess his feelings to Leslie. 

The only problem was that Ben sucked at confessions of love. That was mostly due to the reason that he didn't have a lot of experience in that field. He would have loved to ask Chris for some advice. Chris was so good with women that they didn't even realize when they got dumped by him. Or maybe Chris wasn't that good after all? But Ben had no one to go to for advice. So he thought that it was best to just tell her openly and honestly how he was feeling. The hours before their road trip, he practiced various speeches to Leslie, going from “Leslie, I have to tell you something important...” to “Leslie, I think I'm in love with you...” But the last one was a lie because he knew that he was already in love with her. 

And then Leslie showed up in her comfy, very unleslielike outfit and that ridiculous mixed tape in her hand and he knew that he was a goner. When he pushed away her eye lash, he was close to confessing his feeling for her right then and there but he knew that the car wasn't the right place for this and then the moment was over. All too soon. 

When he was asked what makes Pawnee special, he didn't hesitate. He had listened to Leslie talk about how great Pawnee was for hours and he would gladly listen to her for ages to come. And it worked, he convinced the judges to bring the tournament to Pawnee and Leslie looked at him with pride and admiration. He felt like he could kiss her right in this moment and he asked her out to dinner. Leslie really tried harder than he did, to keep them from getting together. She even invited a stranger, a random photographer, so that their date wasn't really a date.

And then finally, they were alone at a nice restaurant, drinking wine and chatting about the day. The opportunity presented itself and Ben took it. At first, a little hesitantly, he complimented Pawnee instead of her. After all, he was allowed to be in love with the town. The smile she gave him when she understood what he was getting at was so radiant and wonderful. And then she told him all he had ever hoped for: “No, it's not just you.”

But once again, her resolve was stronger than his. She got up, mumbled something about the whiz palace and that she was calling Ann. Ben remained at the table, fearing the worst when Chris's enthusiastic “Ben Wyatt!” pulled him out of his thoughts. So close, Ben had been so close to kiss Leslie.

So he had to wait, again, to get rid of Chris, to be alone with Leslie again. But he couldn't wait too long because maybe Leslie would change her mind. He considered walking straight to her office the next day but Leslie was rarely ever alone and there were too many people who might overhear them. But this time, the odds were in favor for him, and Leslie herself showed up at his office. He didn't remember why she stopped by, he just knew that he had to kiss her. That he wouldn't be stopped again. And she kissed him back! She also said “uh oh”, but that wasn't as important. The only thing that mattered was that she had kissed him back.

The days that followed were among the happiest of his life. “Their bubble” had been destroyed too soon but still he felt overjoyed at being with Leslie, just hanging out with her and getting to show her how much he loved her. But somehow, they never actually said the words “I love you” to each other before their painful, yet necessary, break-up. They said “I love how smart you are”, “you are so great” and “aw, that's so sweet” instead. It had been on the tip of his tongue but he felt like it might be too soon, too rushed. And then their relationship was over before it had really begun.

So the first time Ben used the word “love” and “Leslie”, it written down on an official government record. If he had known that loosing your job for the woman you love, was the easiest way to ensure that said woman loved you forever, he might have quit the moment he realized that he was in love with Leslie. And Leslie had said it back and from that day onwards, they had said “I love you” in some way or another every day to each other. 

Saying “I love you” to Leslie felt like the most natural thing in the world now. Ben couldn't believe that he had been so nervous before that first time when he told Leslie he liked her. He knew that a lot of men felt nostalgic about getting married. But actually, Ben had felt really relieved that he never had to be nervous around a woman ever again. After asking Leslie out for the first time and asking her to marry him and getting both times “yes” as an answer, there had been no more questions he had to be nervous about to ask her, his wife.

They had their fair share of arguments over the years, that was not to be denied. But Ben thought that it would have been insanely boring otherwise. Their first fight as a married couple had been about the farmer's market in Pawnee and the cabbage venders' striptease. Looking back at it now, it seemed absolutely ridiculous that they had run around Pawnee, chasing after another to end this argument. But if Ben was completely honest, their topics for dispute had not changed that much. Just the other day, Leslie had claimed that the outfits of the Japanese hosts on their state visit had looked weird and then they had told them to put on one of their outfits as well. Leslie had assumed that they had worn these strange outfits to show their disrespect toward Leslie. Ben had been at a loss for words and tried to make her see reason. He even went as far as to present a slide show of former foreign leaders who had worn the same outfits. Only then he had figured out Leslie's real problem with the outfit: The color. 

“Yes,” Leslie had said eventually, “but those were not lime green. Lime green looks absolutely terrible on me. It's like that hideous pantsuit that Jessica Wicks made me wear.”

“Did you end up burning this suit?” Ben had wanted to know.

“Of course. But I can't burn this lime green shirt, can I?”

“Leslie, please tell me you are not about to start a war just because this shirt doesn't match your hair color?”

“Ben, Tom's right. You are useless when it comes to fashion,” Leslie had replied. And then a long argument had started that completely drifted away from the issue at hand and had turned into a debate whether or not Ben paid enough attention to what Leslie said when he couldn't even remember the five extremely ridiculous, yet in Leslie's opinion valid reasons as to why lime green was definitely not her color. 

Over the years, Ben had perfected his way of dealing with an infuriated Leslie. The key was to let her get it all out of her system. So he left her rant for another twenty minutes and when she was eventually out of breath, he asked: “You're calm enough to talk about this now?”

And in the end, she wore the lime green shirt, the photos of her eating sushi in it traveled around the world. And the reason why the photos were worth a laugh was not the lime green color but the fact that she made a very adorable face to hide her disgust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment!


	10. Their future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie's thoughts about their future together.

You know that I have binders about everything. Well almost. I don't have a binder on our future. I have a binder on my plans for the future, new laws I want to pass as a councilwoman, new parks projects and I want to find out if I can pull of jumpsuits. But as for us? I only know that we will need to furnish the new house. I have some ideas. When Martha first told me that there was no trampoline room in this house, I was a little bumped out. But she insisted that there are no houses with trampoline rooms. So I decided that our house should be the first with a trampoline room. Obviously, the ceilings aren't high enough but we can put just a small trampoline into the middle of the second guestroom.

Also I think we will definitely need a huge info board, you know for brainstorming and fun organizing of our weekly schedules. Then, we'll need a gigantic bookshelf in the living room, for all our biographies and my binders. And yes, I know I will have to throw away some stuff but some binders are just too important. And don't forget about my scrapbooks! The one I made in Washington? Or the one about Lil Sebastian? I definitely look at them on a regular basis. You know what would also be cool? A Harry Potter themed cloakroom. You know with hangers for all the different Hogwarts houses and when people ask what that's for, then we can gently point them to their way out because I will not have guests over who don't appreciate Harry Potter. And obviously you need a space for your video games and figurine collection. Oh, clothes! We need a walk in closet! 

And of course, we will need to plan our wedding. Our wedding planning will definitely be my next binder project. As a girl, I obviously already have some ideas but you will see. And as I'll tell you these vows on our wedding day, there really is no point in me writing them down here. Let me just say: Our wedding is going to be the wedding of the millennium. My biographer can quote me on this. But what will happen after that? Do you want to have kids? I know we never really discussed it but I feel like you also want to have kids someday. Well, I can tell you that you are going to make an incredible father. 

I never thought that I needed to have children at all costs. Like I get that giving birth is not necessarily part of what makes you a “real” woman. But on the other hand, I don't want to be confined by my political ambitions. It's sad to me that there are not more mothers in positions of power. So I really want to have children some day. I'm a hundred percent positive and that is because of you. We are a great team and we would make really cute babies. Our kids would be super smart, super nerdy and super adorable. Just really super overall. 

I really loved growing up in Pawnee. And although I wasn't technically born here-dishonor on my mom for doing this to me- I consider myself a true Pawneean. It would be nice if our kids could also be Pawneeans. It means so much to me that you consider Pawnee your home as well. It would be nice to go back to Partridge some day. I've never been to Minnesota and I am really curious to see how you grew up. But I get that you don't feel comfortable going back there. Maybe some day...they can't hold this mistake over you forever. You have done so many great things for Pawnee. You've proven over and over that you are a very responsible person. And more reasonable that I am. Okay, I'll admit that's not that hard. And soon you'll reach a point when no one will remember you for Ice Town anymore but instead for the Harvest Festival or the next project in and around Pawnee.

But eventually, we'll have to leave Pawnee. The real politics happen in Washington. I hope someday I'll be strong enough to leave Pawnee behind. But with you, everywhere can feel like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter...it's rather short but more will follow soon. Please let me know what you think!


	11. Dear future First Gentleman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie is sure: Ben is going to make a great First Gentleman!

Dear future First Gentleman,   
everyone who knows me, knows that I want to become the first female president of the USA. That's been my dream ever since I knew what it meant to be a president. I've always been extremely competitive. In school I would never settle for anything less than an A and make a competition out of the most mundane tasks to compete against myself. Most photos glued into a scrapbook that day, most words written in a history essay or fastest in putting the dishes out of the dish washer. So when I learned that A, there was a job where I got to serve this country on the highest level possible and B, there had never been a woman in that position and I had the chance to be the first, I knew that was the job for me. Usually ten year old girls dream of becoming princesses or vets. But I wanted to run for the highest office possible. 

I didn't know exactly how I was going to achieve that and I still don't really know. But I still want to get there. I still want to become president. Though to be honest, I'm no longer keen on being the first female president. Yeah, it sounds nice to be the first but actually this thought makes me really sad now. Right now, I'm pretty far away from moving into the White House. Even if I get lucky, it'll take me at least another 15-20 years to get there. And that's just too long for America to wake up and realize that we are now in the 21st century and it's about damn time that we elect a female leader.

I guess Hillary will try to run again. Her chances are good. Michelle would also be a good fit for the job, if you ask me. Or any of these other strong women out there that we might never have heard of because there's always some man who's shouting louder than them. So I'm totally fine with being the second female president or even the third because this is another big step toward equality.

You wonder maybe what that has got to do with you? The answer is simple: Everything. Because I want you to know that you are most likely marrying the future president. And you are going to be the First Gentleman. I hope you like that title. Or would you prefer First Husband?   
I know we were kind of joking back in Washington when we stood in front of the White House and made plans to move in there. But I saw the way you smiled and then you said “Seriously, that sounds kind of awesome.” And in that moment, I was not only sure that you really meant it but that we could actually move into the White House, maybe not till 2024 but we'll get there. And you know why I'm sure? Because I have you. I have never had anyone believe in me as much as you do. Usually when I first tell people that I want to run for president some day, I get a weak smile and they say “sure” without meaning it. But you took me and my dreams serious from the very start. 

I remember when we joked about how we were just like Barack and Michelle Obama as we sat on the couch after a long day of campaigning. And I truly love the Obamas but I'm sure we'll find our own specific way of doing politics. And then eventually, some day, people will sit down and say “Is this how Ben Wyatt and Leslie Knope feel at the end of the day?”. Wouldn't that be amazing? 

So dear future First Gentleman, how do you feel about throwing a tea party for the politicians' wives, starting a theme garden next to the White House and having rumors about your diets published in everything magazine of the country? Would you like to pick your ties out based on the color of my dress? Would you like to be asked how much time you spend with our children? Just kidding. I hope our society will make some progress till then.   
But if not, I know you are prepared against all these things.

Ben, you are a true feminist. And it should not be a big deal, everyone should be a feminist but sadly too many people are not. There are even women who claim that they are against feminism, for god's sake. So I have to consider myself lucky that I'm going to marry a feminist. Or well, I wouldn't have said yes if you were not a feminist. And yet, you are not just the average feminist man who says he's a feminist because “he obviously has nothing against women”. But you are as I said a true feminist because not only do you truly believe that women and men have the same rights and deserve the same respect and acknowledgment for the hard work they do but you are aware about the many situations where that is not the case. You punched a guy for calling me a bitch. You did not flinch when I referred to you as Michelle Obama. You always believed in me and were not too intimidated to work for me. We are such a great team. “A dream team” as Chris said. And as a dream team we will set a great example for this great nation. And just be the coolest first couple ever! I get to wear floor-length ballgowns and you will look super hot in tight tuxedos! We will fly all over the world and people everywhere will come up with some weird, some hilarious rumors about us. Plus, we probably get to meet Joe Biden on a regular basis. He truly is the only man I would ever consider leaving you for. But that's not gonna happen, I mean you have seen him right? He's Joe Biden! We can have tea with the Obamas! And dinner with the Clintons! It's going to be awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of Ben as a First Gentleman? Feel welcome to leave a comment!


	12. The present First Gentleman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben is very happy with his life as the First Gentleman.

In the present, the First Gentleman sat in the attic of the White House and grinned from ear to ear at this sweet text by his beloved wife. Their lives might be complicated but they were also kind of really awesome. His heart was filled with pride as he thought back to their way to the White House. Leslie had achieved her lifelong dream. A dream that she had had since she had been ten years old. A dream she had never stopped believing in. Unfortunately, she really had been the first female president. Ben and Leslie had hoped that, after Trump, people would be too fed up from typical dominating male figures in politics. But maybe they thought that trying out a complete amateur, not to say idiot, as a president was enough of an experiment for a while. And so, they ended up electing an elderly, white Democrat instead of an equally qualified woman.

But Leslie had not despaired and she has been positive that she knew her time would come. Since they had had the triplets rather late in their lives, they were fine that they had jobs in Congress and as Governor of Indiana that kept them plenty busy but still allowed them to spend time with their children. Leslie had always been great at multitasking but the triplets had truly been her biggest challenge. Even running a campaign for President of the United States had been a piece of cake compared to raising three children at the same time. And yet, they had both cried when the triplets had gone off to college. As soon as they had left the house, Ben and Leslie had gotten super drunk. So drunk in fact, that they nearly got matching tattoos with their children's names. But Ann, being the amazing friend she always is, had called Leslie just in time and made them realized that they were being stupid and should seize the opportunity and do all the things they had put on hold because of the kids. So they decided that Leslie should run for president. Leslie had argued that he would have been an equally qualified candidate. But just as it had been with running for Governor of Indiana, Ben just knew that it should be Leslie. She deserved it more than any other person in the world.

And eventually, Leslie had won the primaries and run as the Democratic candidate. She had a lot of support from women but also from men who acknowledged that it was time for some real change. In the beginning, a lot of focus was on the fact that she was a woman. People kept asking her these stupid questions, the same question they had asked her when he had run for congress. So Leslie scheduled a big TV interview and set a few things straight. That definitely left an impression and even though you could still read in magazines rumors about whether or not Leslie was on a diet or if she had dyed her hair again, they no longer dared to ask these questions at official press conferences. Sometimes Ben was asked this stuff instead but he just smiled it off.

In her two years as president, Leslie had managed to reform the immigration system, improve the health care system and ensure that the US was back on track with their efforts against climate change. And it had definitely not been easy to undo some of the mistakes her predecessors had made, most prominently Trump. Sometimes Ben felt a little sad that Trump was no longer alive to see how his worst nightmare had come true. The US had a female president, a lot of immigrants from all over the world and was economically as strong as it hadn't been for decades. 

But one female president didn't solve every problem. Leslie was still faced with misogyny every day and Ben had faced a fair share of stupid and hurtful comments toward him at his time being First Gentleman. But apart from that, Leslie loved being president and Ben loved being First Gentleman. And he wasn't the only one. In recent years, more and more countries had elected female leaders and now the percentage of First Gentleman on the Partners' program at G 20 summits was 40 %. Ben got along well, especially with the First Gentlemen of German and Canada. Daniel, the husband of the German chancellor was the third first Gentleman in German history so he knew “his job” quite well and had the advantage of looking back at how his predecessors had handled “this job”. Actually, they had mostly stayed in the background and even continued with their usual jobs as professors and lawyers. But Daniel had laid down his work. He was ten years younger than Ben and his children were still teenagers so Daniel looked after them and was head of some charities.

Ben enjoyed talking about politics and social issues with the other First Gentlemen and Ladies. He loved that he got to travel around the world in the Air Force One with Leslie. He loved that he got to live in the White House. And he did, in fact, create a Game of Thrones themed garden and added an annual screening of a Star Wars marathon to the program of the White House.   
But what he loved most about this life was seeing how happy it made Leslie. And whenever he missed her, he could turn on the news and see her. In this very moment, he actually did miss his wife. But right now, there was no need to feature her in the news. So instead, he checked his phone for new messages from Leslie. But there wasn't one. She was probably to busy fitting three Galentine's days into one. However, he had received a text message from Daniel, the First Gentleman of Germany, who wanted to know how he liked the new remake of the Harry Potter movies. This discussion among fanboys had to wait for a while. Ben wanted to continue reading what Leslie had written as her wedding vows. The title of the next page read: Thank you, Ann Perkins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today, I read such a lovely comment that I decided to post two chapters at once. The next one will follow up in a few minutes. I really appreciate every single comment and everyone who reads and enjoys this fic! I'm looking forward to read more of your comments!


	13. Ann, the amazing goddess of fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Ann Perkins, the most amazing best friend.

Ben remembered only vaguely the first time he met Leslie’s best friend Ann. Met was too strong of a word. Seen. The first time he had seen Ann had been that night at the Snakehole Lounge, when Leslie had told him to piss off because no one liked him there. So he had walked away and only vaguely noticed that there was a brunette woman sitting next to Leslie. The first time he had paid any interest to Ann was when he discovered that she and Chris had made out. At that point Ann was just another of Chris’s girlfriends and a friend of Leslie Knope. Ben had always been surprised at how easy it was for Chris to find women to date. Chris may not have been your typical womanizer but he never stayed single for too long.

Ben, on the other hand, had always been cautious about dating. The friends they had made while traveling through Indiana were like facebook friends and romantic relationships were not much more than a flirt on an online dating site. Chris had no problem with that however. He was so positive about breaking up that it was always amicably. Ben hated break ups so he rather stayed away from dating completely to not have to deal with that. But when they stayed in Pawnee for so long and he got to know Leslie so well, he knew he’d have to break his rule only to find out that he’d be breaking an even more important rule.

Ann had encouraged Leslie to break this very rule while Chris had been the one to execute that rule. Ben first realized that Leslie and Ann were more than your average best friends when Ann finally agreed to go out with Chris. Ben suspected correctly that Leslie was behind that. Very not sneaky. Chris was his best friend but he probably wouldn’t have gone on a date with someone just because Ben told him to. Incidentally, the fact that Leslie had insisted on this date had ensured that Ann got to know Chris and date him. Then Chris had to move to Indianapolis, they broke up without Ann realizing it at first. And then, eventually they decided to get pregnant as friends and became partners for life with two kids. In a weird way both friends had helped each other to get their respective spouse.

At first, Ben was intimidated by Ann and her close relationship to Leslie. She knew everything about Leslie and Leslie asked her for advice on every matter in her life. So Ben was positive that whether or not he had a chance with Leslie depended on whether or not Ann approved of him as Leslie’s boyfriend.

So he tried his best to prove to Ann that he was worth dating Leslie. Ultimately, he found a way to impress Ann. On the night they all got drunk at the Snakehole Lounge on this terrible rat poison, Leslie and Ann got into this huge fight. Ben was eventually able to mediate between the two best friends and got Ann to tell him that Leslie liked him. A strange warmth had filled his heart at her words. He couldn’t believe it: Leslie liked him back. Ann had smiled at him and suggested he’d ask her to prom. 

They hired Ann for the department of public health and he got to see her around City Hall even more often. On the day of the okay from the best friend, he casually mentioned to Chris that he would like to date someone from the government and hoped his best friend would approve as well. But then Chris told him that he was sorry and that it was not possible. He didn’t ask who he liked and Ben was grateful for that. His dreams of dating Leslie were crushed. But thanks to Ann and her mingling with the road trip CD and Leslie’s resolve against making a move, Leslie and Ben ended up together.

And as Ben read Leslie’s chapter on Ann, he realized that of course Ann Perkins had every right to be included into their wedding vows. 

Ann, this is no exaggeration but Ben and I would not be here today if it was not for you. In correct fan language I think you can be considered to be the biggest shipper of Ben and me. For you, not nerds, out there, that means that Ann always wanted us to end up together. Even when I told her not to, she always wanted me to follow my feelings for Ben. 

Ann, you are my best friend and I love you so much. Definitely as much as Ben, if not even more. Sorry Ben, but that's just it is. Hoes before bros. Uteruses before duderuses.

Ann, I tell you everything. So of course, you were the first person I told that I liked Ben. But you had already figured that out on your own, that's just how well you know me. You had supported me through some of my rather complicated relationships with men and knew that dating could be very stressful for me. But with Ben, you immediately told me to go for it.

So I followed your advice and you assured me that Ben acted like he liked me back. But when I asked Ben out, he said no. I was devastated because I didn't know that the reason was not that he did not like me back but that he wasn't allowed to date a coworker. I didn't know that we were star-crossed lovers. 

Ann, you helped me through this horrible feeling of rejection. Even though, let be honest, you don't really have much experience with it. You are just too desirable to get rejected. We made a profile for an online dating website but it only helped me figure out that Ben was my soul mate. So when I told you that I would go on a road trip with Ben, you got even more excited than me and wanted me to seduce him. You even sneaked a love song into my anti-seducing tape! But it did the trick. Also you were far too excited about Ben and me getting together to talk me out of it. And I couldn't be more thankful that you did not listen to me that one time and told me just to go for it. You even endured the tons of messages I sent to you concerning Ben and an iMovie with a lot of exclamations marks after Ben and I finally hooked up. But instead of being annoyed by your stupidly in love best friend, you were really happy for me. And you even let us use your office as our secret meeting point.

Ann, you beautiful bastard, you were in all along with the proposal! Ben told me that you contacted Martha for him and picked him up from the airport so he could surprise me. That explains why you did not totally freak out when I told you about the proposal! I had really been astonished by your lack of screaming. Because you were the first person I wanted to tell that I got engaged. 

From the moment we became friends, I had hoped that I could be your maid of honor because I never had a friend as beautiful and brilliant as you and I just wished I could make your special day perfect. Also I never expected to get married before you. Just look at me and then look at yourself! But due to your matchmaking skills, I actually do get married before you and I'm so happy to have you as my maid of honor. You did a great job, helping me organize everything and looking so absolutely gorgeous today.   
Thank you so much! For always being there for me. For listening to me even when I talked for hours about how awesome Ben is. Thanks for telling me that I was being a steamroller and see reason. Thanks for making sure I let Ben go to Washington even though it was so damn hard. Thank you for cheering me on and cheering me up! I just hope that you get as lucky as I got and find yourself a man who is as perfect for you as Ben is for me. And then someday, hopefully soon (we are not getting any younger and the world deserves a lot of beautiful Ann Perkins babies) I can return this great favor and be your maid of honor in return. You deserve only the very best, Ann. And I'm sure you'll get it some day. I love you. Also every color looks amazing on you but this lilac bridesmaid's dress just makes you glow!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go. Second chapter of tonight. I hope you enjoyed it. Leslie used Ann's name quite a lot. By the way, after I first watched the proposal episode, I wrote a one shot about Ben's point of view on the proposal. It's called "I'm thinking about my future". This chapter kind of references this fic when I wrote that Ann knew about Ben's plans about the proposal. Check it out, if you want to. And leave a comment!


	14. Thank you to everyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie thanks the most important people in her life.

April, Andy, you are such a cute couple. You are true relationship goals. And it's important to have a couple to look up to in your life. I have to admit I didn't see it coming when I first introduced you to each other. But just look at Ben and me, you wouldn't have seen that coming either when we first met. 

You two got married after only a few weeks of dating. And when you first told me about your crazy plan I wanted to stop it. Sorry about that. But then I closely watched the way you interacted with each other and it made me realize that in a weird way you were a perfect fit. So I wanted you to be happy and get married on your own terms. And look at you two now, you've already been married for two years. You two are a great example that you sometimes just know...you just know he or she is the one, you just know that you want to spend the rest of your life with the other person and then I totally agree with you, why should you wait any longer after you figured that out?

At this point, I have to admit something to you, Ben. If you hadn't asked me to marry you soon, I would have done it myself because I just know you are the one and you know that I can be impatient as hell. But now I'm so glad I waited because your proposal was spot on and I wouldn't want to have it any other way. 

When I look at you two, April and Andy, I see trust and understanding. I see laughter and happiness. I see the way you just melt around each other. And it makes me believe in love just a little more than I already do. I'm a big believer in love. Why else would there be any point in living?

I also want to thank you for letting Ben live with you. As I gather from the stories he tells me about his time at your house, you gained more from this experience than he did. But it also meant that he was no longer living alone in this hideous motel. Instead, he made great friends. You helped him during our break-up, even though you might not have known why Ben had been sad during that time.

I'm really looking forward to our couple's nights, playing charade and gossiping about our neighbors. Someday, maybe our kids will play in the garden together and we will have a barbecue. Just like two old married couples. 

But just like everyone else, you two started out as two random people whose paths happened to cross. April, you were an intern in Parks and Rec and Andy, you were totally broke and still hung up on Ann when you two first met. It's sometimes hard to believe Andy and Ann ever dated, right?! And now look at you, April, you are political strategist in Washington! And Andy, you are such a great addition to our parks and rec team and you are going to make a great cop someday!  
I'm so proud of you guys! I love you so much! 

So as I'm saying my thanks now, I also have to thank you, Ron Swanson!

Ron, you were one of the first people to know about our relationship. It was by accident and really embarrassing. But even though you disapproved, you didn't tell on us. And the reason you disapproved was that you were afraid that we would get fired and I would no longer work with you. I know it wasn't your intention but that showed us that you really cared about us.

Remember when I told you that I would want to spend the last night on earth with Ben? And how you told me that I couldn't because the world was not ending. I did something stupid that night but you prevented me from doing something even more stupid. So thank you for that, too.

Ron, we disagree on many issues but when it comes to Ben, we both agree that he is perfect for me. What better sign could there be for me to marry him than that?  
Moreover, you are a great friend and a great boss and I'll definitely ask you to walk me down the aisle. My dad can't do it and there is really no one else I'd rather have give me away on my wedding day. 

Chris, in a way, you kept us apart for quite some time and maybe we should be angry with you because of that. But you were right to say that coworkers shouldn't date. It was pretty complicated and with my campaign, it would have still been impossible, even without your rule. Ben was my boss after all, and people don't appreciate it when you sleep with your boss. 

So, yeah, Chris, we got it and I think once you heard Ben confess on the official record that he was in love with me, you also got it. I remember that Ethel Beavers told me that you started crying and were jumping up and down when Ben told you that he wanted to quit his job for me. But I have to admit there was a moment when I hated you. When Ben and I had dinner in Indianapolis and Ben had just told me that he liked me and you showed up, totally out of the blue. In that moment, both Ben and I really wished for nothing more than that you would disappear. But you didn't, no, you invited us to stay at your place and then you kept coming into the room because your well hydrated body had to pee all the damn time. Ben took the first opportunity he got when you weren't around to kiss me. If only you had known how important that evening had been for us. 

But when it was all out in the open you supported us and you put your own job on line to help me with my campaign. Chris, you can be pretty intimidating but you are such a great guy and good friend. Ben definitely picks you as his best man.   
Thank you, Chris, for everything!

First of all, Mom, I want to thank you for the greatest gift: life itself. I wouldn't be here, literally on this planet, if it wasn't for you. Thank you for raising me to be the confident, intelligent and passionate woman I am today.   
Secondly, I want to thank you for approving of Ben. I would have married him with or without your approval. But it's still nice to know that you like Ben and welcomed him as part of our family. I know you were not always so sure if I would ever find a husband. But that's okay. You taught me that a girl needs no man but now I'm just really glad that Ben's my man. I really miss dad on this special day. I think he would have liked Ben as well. He's watching us now, from somewhere far away. 

Mom, you've got to agree: Ben is the perfect son-in-law, isn't he? I mean you even tried to hit on him once. He's cute, he's funny, he's incredible polite and not a push-over, even though he was in credibly scared when he first met you. So scared to make a good first impression on you.   
He's your family now as much as he is mine. 

I could go on and on thanking people that have helped Ben and me or just made my life better at some point. If I ever were to win an Oscar, I would never manage to finish my acceptance speech in time. But what category could I even win? Never mind that.   
I want to thank all my coworkers and friends, and friends, who are coworkers. I want to thank you, Tom. We know you make fun of us a lot, especially of Ben's nerdiness but despite that you are a wonderful friend and with your spirit, you manage to make our lives glitter and shine. Thank you, Donna, for being a little extra. And I mean in the good way, extra awesome and extra wise. Thank you, Jerry, for not screwing this up. At least, I hope not. And thank you Julia and Steven Wyatt for bringing Ben into this world.   
Thank you to everyone else. I love you all very much! And I'm really glad you all came to our wedding. You too, Hillary Rodham Clinton, at least I hope you could make it. If not, I'll send you a picture. Thank you, Joe Biden, for being the best Vice-President and one of the sexiest men alive. And thank you to lil Sebastian. May he rest in peace. I really hope I didn't forget anyone important. In that case, I'm really sorry but it's a long vow and I'm afraid even one my wedding day some people might feel like cutting me off.   
So to conclude with this chapter, thank you to everyone!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is more about Leslie and Ben's relationship to everyone else than to each other. I'm a little confused why Leslie's mom couldn't make it to their small wedding ceremony. So I wrote that Leslie included her mom into the vows. I hope you like this chapter. The next one is going to be really cheesy. Enjoy and please leave a comment!


	15. Reasons to love Ben_Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie loves that Ben is extremely smart and a huge nerd.

Ben was glad that they had come to know Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. And judging from his experiences with them, they would have tried to make it to their wedding if it had been possible to fit it into their busy schedules. Leslie had always been someone who thought about everyone else before she thought of herself and so of course, she would try to include everyone she loved into her wedding vows. Tell everyone how thankful she was and how awesome they were. Even now, she started every new month at the White House with small personal gifts for each employee and a hand written note that told them that they did a good job. Ben read on, curious to see what came next.

Ben, I love your passion  
Ben, you are a nerd. I say that with the greatest admiration because I know what being a nerd means and really there is no shame in being one. I love that you are so passionate about so many things. I sometimes feel like I’m passionate about people and politics and you are passionate about things such as TV shows, movies and books. And although I’m not passionate about the same things as you are, I truly get you.   
A lot of people say that I’m too passionate. That I care too much. But I don’t think there such a thing as being too passionate. It only means that I’m not one of those people who lost the ability to care.   
I see that as one of my strengths. And that’s what you show me as well. Compassion is one of humanity’s greatest assets. Also our lives would just be so boring if we stopped caring. I mean what’s the point in watching Fringe, when you don’t pay attention to possible plotholes? What’s the point in working hard all day long when you don’t enjoy what you are doing?   
There’s this proverb that says: „Happiness is when you do what you love and love what you do.“ And apart from me, you are one of the few people I know who truly enjoys their work. You always put maximum effort into everything and you are really good at it, too. Especially as my campaign manager. You are a force to be reckoned with.   
We are very similar in that way and that’s what I think is great about our relationship. So even though we have a lot of different interests, we share the same enthusiasm for what we do.   
You are someone to go into battle with and to watch a Harry Potter marathon over Christmas. We really managed both to stay up during the whole eight movies. That’s the kind of strength I’ve always been looking for in a man.   
Ben, I’m also very passionate about you. I will defend you with my last breath if necessary and I know you’d do the same for me. 

Ben, I love how smart you are  
“He has to be smart” was always on top of my list of qualities I look for in a guy. And I don't necessarily mean smart as in he has to be able to do maths at the top of his head or know every little detail about our country's fascinating history. But smart enough that he can keep up with me. Over time, I sadly had to discover that a lot of guys are weirdly intimidated when a woman is smarter than them. I got into the habit of dumbing myself down around them, instead of accepting that they are simply not right for me. You never made me feel dumb which is great, actually I feel pretty smart in your company. You are incredibly when it comes to numbers and statistics, you know all about Star Wars and Star Trek, you know our constitution by heart and you read books for fun. When you first told me that you liked me, you mentioned that “I read a shocking number of biographies”. No one has ever told me that with more admiration that you. You don't make me feel bad about my quirks but you actually find a lot of them adorable...except for my messiness...I guess I can understand that. Talking to you was the highlight of my days when you were in Washington. And not only because I missed you and I wanted you to tell me that you still loved me but because I genuinely just love talking to you. You are a patient listener and great at giving advice. You care about my opinion but you are also willing to call me out on my bullshit.   
Sure, a lot of times, when I talk to you, I want to jump your bones at the same time. But I remember how during our first night together, after we had mind-blowing sex, we stayed up until the early morning hours, just talking about nothing and everything at the same time.   
I feel like I can tell you everything, there are no secrets between us and it feels really amazing because after the sneaking around and the trouble of kicking off our relationship properly, it's just so easy between us. With you, I never have to worry that we are going to be like one of these old married couples who no longer talk to each other because after we discussed the weather and our various diseases we ran out of topics to talk about. I really look forward to coming to home to you every day for the rest of my life and just tell you about my day and listen what you did all day. 

Ben grinned. Leslie could sometimes be pretty ridiculous. She was turned on by the weirdest things, him talking bad about her enemies or talking percentages for example. And yes, it was true, occasionally their meaningful conversations turned into passionate love making because Leslie felt like he had just said something incredibly sexy in her opinion. Ben didn't mind that, of course, at least as long as it happened in their private spaces. Once he had only mentioned that he'd be willing to discuss the length of Sandra Bullock's skirts with her and she had immediately pulled him into their bedroom.   
During their first night together, he had felt like finally coming home. And he had realized that home is not necessarily a place but it can be a person as well. And then, they had stayed up all night talking, with light kisses on the forehead or shoulder in between, stroking each others hairs, just in general keeping touching each other in the lightest ways, while they talked about their childhood and their teenage crushes. They talked about their coworkers and other Pawneeans. They talked about their travels to different places all over the USA and discovered that there were so many places that they wanted to see. That was the first time that Leslie had admitted to him that she'd love to go to Paris even though it was so touristy and cliche. And he had added it to the list of things that he wanted give to Leslie as soon as he could: A trip to Paris. What they did not talk about however was the fact that they were not allowed to date, to sleep with each other and fall asleep in each others' arms.   
He had discovered early on that Leslie was hiding something from him but when he discovered what it was, he truly wished that he hadn't found out about it. Leslie could not run for office and have a secret love affair with her boss. They had to break up. But he didn't want to. And he had never been one to break up with people. Usually he was the one that got dumped. But Leslie had refused to do it, she couldn't do it and so he had to make the sacrifice. He ordered the button and showed her that she had his full support. She cried. He cried when she wasn't looking. And if that had been the end of them, it would be the saddest, yet most romantic story in the history of Pawnee.   
But then Leslie had said these five magical words: “Let's just say screw it!” And just like that they were back together and he finally got to tell her that he loved her. And oh my god, did he love her and he still does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this update took longer than expected. So I decided to post two chapters at once again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I know that there might be some repetitions of ideas but it's just a draft, so of course, Leslie would mention some things twice or many more times (when Ben's butt is concerned). Please leave a comment!


	16. Reasons to love Ben_Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie loves Ben's perfect butt, the fact that he's cute and makes her laugh.

Ben, I love your butt

Ben, you butt is absolute perfection. So cute, so gorgeous. I mean you know that you are damn sexy, right? But your butt is definitely the best part of your anatomy. It's exactly in the right place, it has exactly the right firmness and it has exactly the right size. I just wanna run my hands down your back and rest them on your amazing butt. I really don't want to objectify you but damn your butt. I started to collect pictures of it for a new slide show. There are only twenty so far, not enough for a whole show, yet but for a few pages in a scrapbook maybe. What do you think? I did take some screen shot whenever we skyped. I'm sorry but I'm really not sorry at all. Your butt is too great not to be captured for eternity!  
How did it get so perfect? Do you have special butt workout? Or eat some sort of butt forming protein? Is it the cheese they use in calzones maybe? I might never find out but I'm so glad that I'll get to see that perfect butt of yours everyday from now on. It definitely looks best in tight suits. You know a well tailored suit is to women what lingerie is to men. Although, I have to say, girls can look really hot in suits as well. But maybe men in lingerie can also be hot. Maybe we can try it out sometimes? But even in plain jeans, your butt is in the right place and looks so pinchable. Pop songs should be written about your butt. 

Ben, I love how cute you are

I know there are people who disagree with me and claim that it isn't appropriate to call a grown man cute but in my opinion, there's no better word to describe you but to say that you are cute. Very cute indeed. And I thought so from the very start. Even before I liked you, I thought you looked cute. But then I discovered that you are just cute in general. Everything about you is cute. From the way your hair is kind of unruly and looks funny when you get wake up to the way you smile with your eyes lighting up and of course, that super cute butt of yours.  
The way you look at me, makes me weak in my knees and do things to your face that are not appropriate to tell right now. I think it's cute that you get excited so easily and that you say the weirdest, most adorable things when you are nervous.  
It was so cute of you when you bought me an L-shaped eclair. It was terrible because afterward, I just couldn't break up with you as I had planed. But it was such a cute gesture. You gave me the perfect presents, and I know what I'm talking about, I'm the master at giving perfect presents. I cherish each of your presents very much, the little Playboy otter captain, the miniature lil Sebastian or the badge for my campaign. And now this engagement ring, the biggest, greatest present so far. And of course, the love you give me. I want to run my hands through your nice hair right now but I don't want to wake you up. It has the perfect length to run my hands through while we are kissing. Your eyes are this warm brown that I could stare into forever and forget everything around me. Your mouth is just so kissable, so sweet, so soft. And you are just the perfect the size for me, no matter what I said about certain elf- kings. You are not too tall that I would be intimidated but not too small either that I would no longer get to wear any high heels. Your hands are gentle and warm, even when mine are freezing you can warm them up. You're cute in your plaid shirts and khaki pants, you're cute in pjs and a three days beard and you're cute in a suit with tie. Okay, stop that, you are damn sexy in a suit. I feel like I'm repeating myself but I worry that I will really have trouble keeping my hands off of you on our wedding day when you are going to wear a tux. 

Ben, I love how you make me laugh

Ben, you make me laugh so much. You are so funny without ever being mean. You see the hilarity in most situations and manage just by a deadpanned comment to turn a dire situation into a reason to laugh out loud. It sounds so easy to wish to find a guy who makes you laugh. But it's actually pretty hard. But around you I can never quite stop smiling. With you, I can even laugh about myself.

 

Ben had never thought about it much. He had never really considered himself to be a funny guy. Of course, he knew that he had a good sense of humor, that he liked to laugh but he never believed that he had too much power to make other people laugh. And he liked being called cute by Leslie. She was cute, too. So cute. This whole idea that looks didn't matter when you had an attractive personality was a nice idea but not true in reality. Ben had considered himself always to be average looking. Neither really good nor ugly. He had never taken an interest in fashion and he definitely didn't enjoy working out. So when Leslie called him cute, he had forgotten about all that. The love of his life thought he was cute. Even now, when he was an elderly gentleman with greyish hair. And even now, did Leslie believe that he had a cute butt. Maybe it was because you can't really look at your own butt, only on photos and video, but he still didn't get Leslie's obsession with his bottom. The next page was titled: “This is what I vow to you”. So was Ben getting finally to the very heart of this draft?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, a second chapter. Initially I tried to write a poem about Ben's butt because it seemed like something Leslie would do but I just couldn't come up with good rhymes of butt or butt related words. I recommend everyone who hasn't seen it yet to watch "Parks and Rec: See every time someone talks about Ben's butt!" on YouTube. Enough about the butt, the next chapter will be a little more serious. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment!


	17. The actual vows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So finally, Leslie comes to the most important part of her vows.

This is what I vow to you

This is what I vow to you. I mean that’s all these vows are actually about, isn’t it? So first of all, I vow to you that I will love you as long as we both shall live. I don’t like the phrase “until death does us two part“ because I don’t want to think about the possibility of a life without you. Not even for one second. It even makes me upset that I just mentioned it. So upset, I think I’m going to start crying now. Really, I need to change the subject. Your butt! No, I talked about that already. Okay, let’s just hope that we live a long and happy life together.   
I vow to take care of you, in sickness and in health. I’ll try to cook your famous chicken soup for you when you get the flu and buy you vegetables. I’ll make sure that you never feel depressed for too long. I would love to tell you that with me you should never feel depressed again but it can happen. Sometimes things can get too much, sometimes not being able to do anything is even worse, like the time you were in between jobs. But I’ll always be there for you. You’ll never have to go through a bad time alone again. You can always rely on me for advice, I consider myself a pretty good advice giver.   
I vow to protect you. You punched a guy once because he called me a bitch and I want you to know that, under any circumstances, I would do the same for you. I’m great at punching people or tackling them to the ground, as you know from your own experience. But of course, I’ll only use violence as my last resort. At first I will defend you with mankind’s strongest weapon: words. I’ll defend your honor to my dying breath. I got really good at defending you during our time promoting the Harvest Festival, when people still made fun of you for Ice Town. And I had to defend a lot of my decisions and reforms over the years as well. So I’m really good. One of the best. You just say the word and I'll talk people senseless to protect you.   
I vow to never tidy up our home because you constantly told me that I suck at keeping my home in an acceptable order. I vow to eat vegetables, once in a while, but never, ever salad. I vow to never make fun of calzones again and enjoy eating them at least once a month. Okay, we'll see about the making fun part. But you're right. They are very delicious.   
I vow to sleep at least four hours a night. I know how concerned you are that I don’t sleep enough and I know that rationally speaking you’re right. But sleep is often such a waste of time and there’s so much to do. But I don’t want to see the frown on your forehead either when I tell you that once again I’ve already been up for two hours after you wake up as late as six in the morning. So I’ll try my best to sleep more and make you less worried about me.   
I vow to save up at least one day a month just for the two of us. These days are sacred and should only be interrupted in case of true emergencies. These emergencies include: a national crisis, death of a friend, family member and a member of government, an international crisis, obviously, in case of the opening of a new library or any other library related issue. Libraries are evil and must be defeated at all costs! But in any other case, we’ll have one day just to ourselves. Not necessarily to relax though. We both suck at relaxing. So here is another vow: I vow to never go on a boring holiday with you. Holidays are for adventures and not for relaxing!  
Also I vow to have sex with you, a lot. I really like to jump your bones and you're so cute and sexy so I don’t think that will ever change. I thought you were cute when I first saw the picture of you as an 18 year old mayor. And I think you are cute now at age 36.   
I vow to you that you will never be bored with me because I have a plan for the next five years of my life and this plan includes you in many aspects. Also I can’t stand boredom myself, so I’ll make sure we are always busy. So far I don’t see any problems with that.  
I vow to be faithful to you. I think this goes without saying but of course, I have to make this vow because I never want you to doubt that you are the only man I love and I’ll ever love this way. And even though I might occasionally mention Joe Biden as a prime example of the male species, it’s just a fantasy of mine. I wouldn’t leave you even if Joe Biden were to ask me this very moment to elope with him. You are and you will always be the man of my dreams.  
I vow to always be on your team, to support you no matter what but also call you out on your bullshit before there are any bad consequences. My campaign for city council will definitely not have been the last campaign we ever run. No one can run for office alone, you need a strong team behind you and what’s better than a spouse who fully supports you. And I trust you to do the same for me.   
I vow to give you the best presents for your birthday, for Christmas, for Valentine’s day, for our anniversaries and for any other occasion. I love the face you make when you are surprised and I vow to make you do that surprise face as often as I can. You’ve done so many amazing things to surprise me, the L-shaped eclair, giving up your job for me and coming home to me, just to name a few of these things. So you really challenge me in a discipline I used to believe I competed without concurrence. But I’m always glad for any challenge. 

Ben, it's half past four in the morning. We have to get up in two hours but I really don't care. I want to finish this tonight. I know it's just a first draft. I'll have to rewrite it, cross out a few things. Could it be possible that I mention your butt too many times? And did I write I love you enough times?   
If I counted correctly, this is page 67. This seems like a lot but on the other hand, I could fill a whole book, no, a whole Harry Potter length septalogy on you and how much I love you.   
And like in any good book, at least in any good non-fiction book, the last chapter is a summary of all the important points that have been made before and gives us a look into the future. So this is it: Benjamin Wyatt, I love you and I like you. And I love that I love you and that I like you. I mean I know these things usually go together but with you I feel like telling you just “I love you” is not enough to fully express how I feel about you. So I added “I like you” because I really do. I like everything about you and I love you even more.   
I love how smart you are. You can do maths without a calculator and remember all lines from Star Wars and Star Trek, which I find really impressive. I love how thoughtful and understanding you are. I know that I can be a lot, I sometimes behave irrationally or demand too much from the people around me, but you never make me feel bad about it. You do your best to make me see reason and calm me down when I get overly agitated about stuff. I love how funny you are. You make me laugh with your puns and jokes but mostly with your spot on expressions that manage to turn dire situations into a reason to laugh out loud. I love how passionate you are and I'm not just referring to our sex life but to life in general as well. You are passionate about your fandoms and your boardgames but you are also passionate about the things I like and you support me with everything with great enthusiasm. You surprise me with the sweetest gifts and gestures. You got so good at it that I'm afraid you might beat me at getting the best presents. I love how cute your butt is and the rest of your body is really gorgeous, too. And you have exactly the right height for me to kiss you and rest my head again you chest which is a really lovely feeling. You look really sexy in a tux and super hot in a plaid shirt. And last but not least, I love that you love me just the way I am. I've always felt insecure about myself, feared that I'm not smart enough, not pretty enough, not fast enough...simply not enough. But with you I never feel that way. You make me feel loved and safe and like I'm the most important person in your life which is the best feeling in the world.   
I so excited that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. I love you and I like you.   
I could probably come up with more but I literally can't keep my eyes open any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took me so long to update and unfortunately, it will probably take at least a week again for me to update the next chapter. Finals are coming up. Sorry. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a comment!


	18. Leslie comes home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben finished reading Leslie's draft just as Leslie returns home. She finds him crying of happiness.

Ben slowly closed the binder and wiped a few tears away from his cheek with the back of his hand. But it wasn't enough. The tears were running freely now that he no longer needed to concentrate on the words. He pulled out his handkerchief and blew loudly into it. This was how much Leslie loved him. She had stayed up all night to write this seventy page draft of things she wanted to say to him at their wedding. And yet, she had managed to convey the same message in her short, spontaneous vows. I love you and I like you. Just like this draft, their vows had ended with the same sentence. Ben couldn't remember which of them had come up first with “I love you and I like you” but it got stuck. At some point they simply said it whenever it seemed fit, as a goodbye, as a good night or just because they hadn't said it in a while. Ben felt like he needed to tell Leslie that right now, in this exact moment. She needed to know how much he loved her. Even though, she knew, even though, he texted her exactly that last night and said it on the phone before she boarded the plane back to Washington. But as it turned out he could just say it to her face now. 

“Ben! There you are!” He heard his wife's voice from the door. He looked up, tears still glittering in his eyes. 

“Leslie!” He struggled to get up. 

“Ben! Honey, oh my god, are you crying?! What happened?” Leslie came running toward him.

“Yes, I've been crying. But those are happy tears.” Ben explained and cried just a little harder because he was so happy to see her. Leslie reached him and Ben put his hands next to her face and told her: “Leslie, I love you and I like you.”

And then he gave her the sweetest kiss. She put her arms around him, one arm around his waist and the other wandered down to his butt. 

“I love you and I like,” Leslie replied between kisses. “You really missed me, huh?” She mused as they continued to make out. 

“I read your draft...the seventy pages of your wedding vows,” Ben explained and pointed to the closed binder.

“Oh my god, I forgot all about them.”

“I read it all,” Ben said, “you wrote such beautiful things.”

“I never got a chance to edit it so I don't remember exactly what I wrote. I only remember that I was too excited to sleep the night after we got engaged and that was the only way to express my feelings for you.”

“And you wrote the whole thing with me sleeping next to you?” Ben wanted to know. 

“Yes, we had been apart for too long. I couldn’t stand not being next to you.”

“I had the first proper sleep in weeks that night but now I feel bad that I didn't get you to sleep as well at least a little. So it was not just excitement but sleep deprivation that had kept you acting so high.” Ben grinned at her. Leslie had shouted the fact that they were getting married to everyone who had wanted to hear and even louder to those who didn't care.

“You know, I'm always sleep deprived,” Leslie replied.

“Yeah, I know. How was it at Ann's?”

“It was great. She is as beautiful and brilliant as ever. We talked so much that we didn't get to rewatch the Oscars. But that's okay. At least we discussed all the important dresses and the other relevant points on my list. Ann still claims that she doesn't like Harry Potter, though, she won't even watch the remake. I mean it was not that great. No one will ever be a better Hermione than Emma Watson, right? But you gotta watch it at least so you know what I'm talking about!”

“Easy, Leslie,” Ben said calmly when he saw how worked up she was getting about Harry Potter again.

“Do you want to have some dinner? I wanted to make mac n cheese pizza...”

Leslie gasped as always at the mentioning of one of her favorite dishes and kissed her husband, hard. It was their little inside joke ever since he had mentioned mac n cheese pizza for the first time.

“But it's gonna take a while. I lost track of time while reading your vows. It's good, though, that you didn't read it out loud during the ceremony. Some of our guests would have definitely killed you before you even reached the part about my pinchable butt.”

“Yeah, I know,” Leslie replied and gave his butt a light pinch, “but it was a draft. I would have shortened it down to at least fifty pages.”

“In the end, you managed to shorten it to a few sentences and they were perfect,” Ben told her and played with a strand of her blonde hair. 

“Our wedding was wonderful. Totally crazy but still, even after getting elected as president, it was definitely the happiest day of my life. Don't tell the kids, but I was so drowsy from the pain of getting three kids about of my vagina, that I don't remember much from the day they were born. But I remember everything about our wedding day. It's a good thing we didn't get drunk like our friends, I guess. Has it really already been 29 years ago?” Leslie mused.

“Yeah, 29 years...so much has happened since then.” 

“Ben, if I could, I would do it all over again,” Leslie told him. 

Ben looked at Leslie, now with dyed hair and wrinkled skin, but still as beautiful as they day they met. Do it all over again?

“Leslie, we could do that. Get married again….or well, we could renew our wedding vows for our 30th anniversary.” 

“Are you serious?” Leslie asked, beaming at him.

“Of course, I'm serious.” And to prove to her just how serious he was, he got down on one knee. It wasn't as easy as it had been 30 years ago. He struggled with his balance as he got down and his knee protested against being places on to the hard ground. But he didn't care.

“I'm thinking about our future...”

“Wait, what are you doing?” Leslie asked, grinning from one ear to the other.

“Can you please just let me do this right for once?” Ben insisted.

Leslie nodded. “Go on.”

“I'm still deeply, ridiculously in love with you and above everything else I'm so glad to spend my life with you. So Leslie Knope, will you marry me again and renew our wedding vows with me?”

“Yes!” Leslie screamed and rushed forward to kiss him. But Ben fell over as he tried to get back up and Leslie had to pull him up. He fell against her and she had to hold him tight to keep him steady. They both busted out into laughter.

“Okay, good. And this time, I'll write you vows that will take your breath away!” Ben promised with an air of competitiveness. 

Leslie smirked. “You try that, Wyatt. But this will be like our anniversary gifts all over again.”

What a lovely exchange between a married couple, Ben mused. He was glad that their bantering had never stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I wouldn't be able to update soon. Well, I really should study but instead I'm procrastinating and writing fanfics (started a new Peraltiago one as well)...it's terrible. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. So cheesy. Let me know what you think!


	19. The venue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben discuss the venue of their vow renewal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, I'm terribly sorry for the long wait! One of the worst things that can happen to any writer, happened to me, I got sucked into a new fandom and didn't feel like spending time with Parks and Rec...so sorry. Still, I love Leslie and Ben so much and the draft of this fic includes still three more chapters, which I hope I can post over the following weeks. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'm looking forward to your comments!

“For the ceremony, I'm thinking we should definitely do it Pawnee. But I don't know if the parks and rec department will be big enough anymore and it looks so differently from when we used to work there. So maybe not Pawnee? Where else? The White House? I don't want to have the press all over us but at the same time, I don't want this to be a tiny, secret event. Our small wedding was great but I had such big plans. What do you think?” Leslie stopped to catch her breath. 

“I'll be fine with whatever makes you happy. But I don't think we should make too much of a deal out of it. We are under constant surveillance and even though, it will probably make a nice story for the press, I want this to be just about us, you know?”

“Yeah, of course. So maybe...we go to Fiji!”

“Why Fiji?” Ben asked confused. 

“Because it's an island. People will have trouble finding us there,” Leslie explained like it was the smartest idea ever. 

“But we have no connection to Fiji whatsoever. I rather renew our wedding vows at a place that has a special meaning to us,” considered Ben. 

“Let's have dinner, shall we?” Ben offered Leslie his hand and they both went down to their private kitchen on the third floor.   
Ben put water on the stove to boil for the macaroni and then started to form the calzones. In the meantime, Leslie changed from high heels and a casual dress into pjs and a hoodie and sat down with a cup of tea. Even though, they were a great team in almost all situations, they were terrible at cooking together. Leslie often protested Ben's attempts to make their dishes more healthy. But ever since he had revealed that he had sneaked vegetables into her food for years, she kept a watchful eye on each dish he prepared. However, as the first couple of the US, they hardly ever had days like this where they could just stay in their private kitchen, cook for themselves and chat about whatever they wanted without it making the front page the next day. 

“Did you see that Chris came in as the 101st at the marathon?” Leslie asked her husband.

“No.”

“He posted a photo of him. He looks pretty happy about it, actually happier than the winner who looks like he's about to faint.” She showed him the picture of Chris and the winner. 

“Great!” Ben smiled at the picture of his super healthy best friend. “Yeah, I should probably work out more. My knee really hurt earlier and it made me feel so old.”

“Oh, no. You are in great shape, honey. Besides then people would expect me to work out more as well. And I really don't want to. Not just because I don't have the time for that but simply because I don't want to. I need to look up again whose idea it was to install a gym in the White House.” 

“Just because the gym exists, it doesn't mean you have to use it. Millions of people are members at their gym but never go there either,” Ben told her. 

“I suggest we turn it into a story: “President Knope is just like you: She doesn't go to gym.” Leslie declared. 

“Yeah, something like that. I would definitely read it.” Ben grinned.

“Speaking of reading. Ben, you didn't read all of my binders, did you?” Leslie asked, suddenly very serious. 

“Of course not. There are like a thousand of them,” Ben said. 

“Good.” Leslie looked down at her phone, clearly hiding something. 

“Why? Is there something I'm not allowed to read? Do you have a secret?” Leslie enjoyed sharing her thoughts and feelings so much that Ben never worried about her keeping secrets from him. Rather the opposite was the case. Occasionally, she told him things he did definitely not want to know.   
“No, of course not...I mean it's not a big deal but some of these binder might be a little embarrassing.”

“Yeah, I made a pile for those,” Ben informed her, “I think we can just throw them out and no one will ever know they existed.”

“No! Ben! But…!” Leslie exclaimed. 

“But what?”

“I can't throw them out because they are still important to me. I can look through them again and see how much I have evolved, how much I have accomplished and how ugly some of these haircuts have been. Please don't throw them away. We really have enough space. Okay, you can throw out the newspaper clippings...maybe or all the stuff that is not personally related to me. But all my binders...they are what I made. I still needed them to remind me that every great projected started off as nothing but a binder,” Leslie explained. 

“I agree that it's great to look at things from the past, Leslie,” Ben turned toward her and said seriously, “But we really have to make sure that no one but us ever gets to read these binders. The one about Greg Pikitis? It looks like the work of a crazy stalker.”

“Alright, alright. That one I can get rid off. Did you know that Greg Pikitis actually married Allison? They have two kids and still live in Pawnee. And according to the police reports, he hasn't done anything unlawful ever since then. I guess people really do change.”

“Leslie, I love you very much. But you are crazy! You still stalk that kid?!” Ben exclaimed, not really surprised at all.

“I decided a long time ago to take crazy as a compliment. So thank you, my dear husband,” Leslie replied and walked up to him to taste some of his cheese sauce. It was definitely made without broccoli.   
Ben added the mac n cheese to the calzones and let them bake in the oven. Then he poured Leslie and himself a glass of red wine and sat down across from her. Just a rare domestic evening between the two of them. 

 

A few day later, Ben sat in his office, when the computer installed in his desk informed him: “Madam President is approaching!” But that was hardly necessary as Leslie only arrived a few seconds later with a cheerful: “Hey, babe!”

“Hey!” He leaned up to kiss her. “What's up?”

“I just spoke to Jared and he said he'll make sure there's nothing scheduled for the day of our 30th wedding anniversary, “ she told him. 

“That's great news! You think the world can hold it together for us though?”

“I sure hope so. But we have already proven that we can get married under catastrophic circumstances,” Leslie smiled proudly. 

“Yeah, you're right. We'll be fine,” Ben replied, reassured. 

“So you want to go over our schedule for our 30th wedding anniversary planning?” Leslie asked and placed a big, red binder on his desk. 

“Sure!” Ben curiously opened the binder. In typical Leslie's style, it started with a colorful overview over the main subdivision of their planning and an explanation to the colors of the tabs. The first thing on their agenda was: “Venue!”

“Here's a list of 113 possible venues,” Leslie said and flipped to the next page. 

“Leslie, when did you do this?” Ben asked, concerned. 

“This morning…,” Leslie said. 

“Before or after your meeting with the press secretary?” Ben inquired. 

“Before, of course!” 

“Leslie, honey, I can't believe you only slept for two hours again! If it even was two hours. The meeting was at six in the morning! How Leslie, how could you have written, what one hundred possible venues for our wedding anniversary?!”

“Babe, relax, I couldn't sleep anyway,” she reassured him, “And I rather think of venues for our anniversary than our trouble with Russia at the moment, okay? Can we just focus on this please?”

“Okay...fine...let me see...” Ben looked through the list and pointed at number 5. “We are definitely not getting married at the Wizarding World of Orlando.”

“Why not?” Leslie pouted. 

“It's simply not possible because of security reasons and because that is definitely the opposite of low key,” Ben explained to her. 

“Fine. How about in Ireland where they shot parts of Game of Thrones? The landscape looks amazing.” Ben was flattered that she put a place that was mostly special to him on the list as well. But he knew that it was not a good choice. 

“We can't expect all of our friends and family to travel to Ireland for us.”

“Yeah, that's true. And it would be a really long journey for little Emily. No, you are right. It has to be within the US,” Leslie agreed. 

Leslie sat down on Ben's lap and took one of his markers to cross out all the possible venues that were outside of continental United States territory. Among them were “Notre Dame in Paris”, “Neuschweinstein Castle In Germany” and “On top of Mount Everest”. 

In the end, about a fifty possible venues were left.   
Before they could take a proper look at them, however, the computer voice warned: “Miss Watson is approaching.”

“Leslie!,” called Leslie's personal assistant breathlessly, “I'm sorry but it's urgent. A plane crash in Brazil. Possibly with US citizens on board.”

“Oh no!,” Leslie exclaimed, “this is terrible. I'll be right there!” 

Leslie hopped off of Ben's lap and quickly kissed him goodbye. “Read the list without me and pick your top ten, will you?” She shouted as she ran out of his office. Just a usual day as the country's First Couple, Ben thought. But before he read through the list, he turned on the news and really, only fifteen minutes later, his wife appeared on screen and offered her condolences for those who had been killed.


	20. The bench in front of the wildflower mural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day before renewing their vows, Leslie and Ben sit down on a very special bench on the second floor of Pawnee City Hall and remember the first time that they sat there together.

It was a perfect day to get married, Ben thought as he looked out of the window and onto the familiar street. The sky was clear and the sun was just barely breaking through the tips of the trees. Leslie had insisted that she had to spend the night in Ann's room so that at least once they would keep some wedding traditions. So Chris had slept on the couch in Ben's room. He was still asleep, luckily his life was not as stressful as that of Leslie and Ben and he always tried to get eight hours of sleep ever since he read how essential sleep was to staying healthy. Ben didn't want to wake him, so he climbed back into bed and reread his new wedding vows for the hundredth time. This time he would manage that Leslie would make the dumb surprise face and not him. And if it was the last thing he did! Or rather not, he wanted to live at least another twenty years and help Leslie through her second term of office as well and then eventually, they could retire or at least what Leslie called retiring, cutting down to 20 hours a week or something like that. 

It was amazing. Their idea of turning Pawnee City Hall into the venue of their vow renewal had worked out. The courtyard had been cleaned up and a huge tent had been built up because the city chambers could never hold that many guests. Red flowers of any kind were hanging from the ceiling and a huge banner that said: “Happy 30th anniversary, Leslie and Ben!”. Leslie had suggested that the murals in the hallway, except for their beloved wildflower mural, were replaced for the day by photos from scrapbooks of their life together. Ben had tried to stop her butm as always, she was unstoppable. In the end, they had reached a compromise and Ben got to take down some of the more embarrassing photos of the two of them. Yesterday they had walked through all the corridors of city hall and made sure everything was perfect for this special day. As it was the weekend, only a few city employees had been around, but those who had been there, had insisted on taking selfies with the president and occasionally with Ben as well. It was a bit creepy, in Ben's opinion, to have your own face stare down at you all over the place but at the same time, he had to admit that they had made many damn cute pictures over the years.  
The first one of them ever together was from the Harvest Festival. They both stood next to Lil Sebastian. Leslie had a look of pure excitement on her face while Ben looked like he wondered what the hell was going on in that very moment. The last picture in this gallery was from their trip to the UK a month ago. Leslie wore a red coat and Ben a dark blue suit as they stepped out of Air Force One, waving to the audience.  
At the end of their tour through city hall, they had sat down on the bench in front of the wildflower mural. A shiny, silver plaque had been added underneath it which read: “This is the favorite place within Pawnee City Hall of Leslie Knope, 48th president of the United States.” 

“I feel more honored by this plaque than by a whole library being dedicated to me,” Leslie had said and ran her fingers over the plaque. 

“Just wait a few more months, and they are going to name a whole school after you,” Ben had reassured her. 

“The Leslie Knope School! Sounds good to me...I still can't say it though.” Leslie shuddered.

“Say what?” 

“Leslie Knope Library.” The last word was barely a whisper.

Ben rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead. They sat a while in silent on Leslie's favorite place. Eventually Leslie asked: “Ben?”

“What is it, babe?”

“Why did you pick this bench when you suggested we'd meet there after Chris and Ron's cook off?” Leslie wanted to know. 

“Honestly? I just liked that this mural didn't show any gory details of Pawnee's history.”

“That's it?” Leslie looked a bit disappointed. “You didn't think that it looked romantic and beautiful and was the perfect spot to meet because it was still on the premises of city hall but also kind of private because only few people pass this part of the second floor regularly?” 

“No, Leslie,” Ben laughed, “I didn't think that much about it actually. But I read in your draft that you took it as a sign that we were soul mates. So I guess, I just had a really good instinct that day.”

“Yeah, I guess. It's probably like the night we got married. When you are in love, everything looks like a sign,” Leslie mused.

“That's right. I also took it as a great sign that we sat on this very bench until past midnight, long after we had discussed all your ideas for the health initiative,” Ben reminisced.

“You know that's one of the many things I enjoy so much about being married to you. We never run out of topics to talk about. Granted, we argue a lot, we disagree, but we also come to compromises, to conclusions and accept each others' opinions. I know that I can come off as too passionate, but with you I have found my match. In that way, I truly believe that we are soul mates.” Leslie smiled at him as he reached out to take her hand into his. 

“Before I met you, I never even considered the possibility of soul mates. But yeah, if soul mates exist, then we are definitely soul mates,” Ben told Leslie. 

“That's a beautiful thought,” Leslie replied and kissed him. 

“So, honey, you are okay with our “second” wedding going according to plan?” Ben asked after a while. 

“What!?” Leslie suddenly sat up straight. 

“I mean so far, knock on wood,” Ben knocked on the bench and continued: “Everything goes according to plan. Which is not like many things in our lives. I don't know how to phrase this but it kind of makes me nervous that we haven't faced a crisis during the last 24 hours,” Ben explained. 

“You want a crisis? Really, Ben, I'm fine with things going according to plan once in a while. And when I tell you to relax, then you know that it really is time to relax because I hardly ever say that.”

“I know that, honey.” 

“Good,” Leslie rested her head against Ben's shoulder. “I'm really looking forward to see our kids tomorrow. And little Emily! She must have grown at least an inch since we last saw her.”

“Yeah. Do you remember when the triplets were that little?” 

“Oh, yeah. These tiny monsters! And now, look at them, all grown up. And Sonia, our baby, has her own baby.”

“I'm glad that they get a chance to be at our wedding,” Ben mused. 

“Too bad, the triplets never got to be flower children. They would have been perfect.”

Ben smiled as he tried to imagine it. Little Sonia in a puffy yellow dress and Westley and Stephen timidly following her, only to realize that they had a long, straight lane in front of them and then all three of them turned out to be unstoppable and they would run down the aisle, chasing after each other. 

Leslie and Ben spent at least an hour like this, sitting on their bench and reminiscing about their past. But eventually, they had to get changed for their so called “first rehearsal dinner”, since they didn't have a rehearsal dinner for their first wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry again that I didn't manage to update sooner. I hope you enjoy this new chapter! Let me know what you think!


	21. Visitors for the groom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonia and Chris visit Ben before the ceremony.

“Hey, dad!“ Sonia entered the changing room, her little baby girl Emily on her arms.   
Ben straightened the jacket of his tux and stood up to greet them.

“Hey, sweety! Hey, little puppy!“ Ben hugged his daughter and then took his granddaughter into his arms. Emily immediately reached out to play with his bow-tie. Emily was nine months old and very lively. She didn't like to remain still for too long. But not in the way that she was crying all the time but just that she liked to be noticed and see what was going on around her. In that way, she resembled her maternal grandmother. Because a lot of genes for beauty were combined in her, Leslie was convinced that she would end up being the most beautiful woman on the planet. Her eyes were definitely Ann's eyes and Leslie was overjoyed about that fact. Ben kissed her little forehead. 

“You invited the whole city, didn’t you?“ Sonia mused. 

“Yeah, that was your mom’s plan for our first wedding. So she made it happen for our anniversary.“

“City Hall looks amazing, though. A lot has changed here during the last decade,“Sonia observed.

“Yeah, mom is not too happy about it,“ Ben grinned and carefully tried to entangle Emily’s tiny hands from his bow-tie. 

“I think it’s great that you are going the ceremony here. It’s where it all started. I've always loved looking at photos of your wedding. So beautiful.“

“Yeah, I think so, too, Sonia. Have you seen mom yet? How is she doing?“

“She is super excited! And aunty Ann really outdid herself this time with the dress.“

“Argh, I don’t wanna know. I should not know that…“Ben interrupted her. 

“You guys are cute, dad,“Sonia smiled and took Emily back from him. “Is there anything I can help you with? Let me just give Emily to Oliver first and then I can do whatever you need.“

“Thanks, sweety, but we have everything under control. April and Andy arrived two days early and helped us out here.“

“Good. I’ll go back to Oliver then.“

 

Sonia and Emily left but Ben was not alone for long. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door and Chris entered. 

“Hey Ben! I just passed Sonia and Emily. Our granddaughter is literally the cutest child on earth!“

“Yeah, she is,“Ben replied. He still couldn’t quite believe that Leslie and Ann’s plan of making their children fall in love with each other had worked out and that not only had Ben’s daughter married Chris’s son but they had a baby girl together. Leslie sometimes jokingly, or even not so jokingly considered it her best project. Sonia and Oliver acted as though they were embarrassed by their scheming mothers but actually, they were really glad that they had helped to get them to fall in love with each other. Even though, they had gotten along fine during high school, they had never spent much time together without their parents involved. But then they ended up studying at Harvard together and they reconnected. But even then, they had not been dating. Due to thorough investigations of their mothers, it was discovered that they did indeed like each other in a romantic way but were both too shy to say anything and worried that they might ruin their friendship. So Leslie and Ann had taken it into their own hands and arranged a blind date for both of them that ended up being their very first date. Three years later, they had married, moved in together and added a child to their happiness. Leslie had been so thrilled that she could now consider Ann officially her sister, even though everyone tried to explain her that this was not at all how it worked. Obviously, Ben and Chris were also very happy that their children had ended up together and thus created another opportunity for them to frequently see each other. But Ben had felt extra awkward when he had sat down with Oliver and tried to have the usual “dad talks to his daughter's boyfriend” talk. Oliver had started laughing and told him “Uncle Ben, I promise I'm going to treat Sonia with utmost respect and take care of her because I love her very much.” And with that, all had been said. Oliver had also positively surprised Ben when he had not asked for Ben's permission to marry Sonia but rather told him that he was going to ask her to marry him and that she was a strong, independent woman who made her own choices. If ever there had been any doubt, Ben knew then that he could not find a better husband for his daughter. Sonia was truly special, as were all his kids obviously but her being the only girl of very ambitious parents, meant that she always had the highest goals and always wanted to follow into her mother's footsteps. Ben didn't know if it really was due to the fact that Leslie had predicted that “if we do this right, we could be parents of one third of the supreme court” or if it just sort of happened. But Sonia was actually on her best way to becoming a supreme court justice with her law degree from Harvard. However, since her mother was the current president, it would have looked like a conflict of interest if Leslie appointed her. So she had to wait a few more years. During this time, she worked as a human rights lawyer all over the world. Only the birth of Emily had slowed her down a little bit. 

Emily was both Ben and Chris's first grandchild but they hoped many more would follow. Leslie Perkins-Traeger had recently gotten engaged and hopefully she would also start a family soon.   
Despite Chris's tireless efforts to eat healthily and work out regularly, time had left some marks on him as well. His hair was dyed brown and the slight jump in his step was gone. He still went jogging but he could no longer go without occasional pauses and he now took 120 second long power naps. Ever since, Chris and Ann had moved back to Pawnee, they had stayed there. Chris had, however, abandoned his work in government and moved into the private sector as well, while Ann was back working as a nurse. 

“So how are you doing? Are you nervous to get married again?“Chris asked, jokingly. 

Ben grinned: “No, I’m not nervous at all. In fact, I just can’t wait to marry Leslie again.“

“That’s good to hear. Has it really already been 30 years, buddy?“

“Yeah, it's crazy, right?” Ben replied. 

“So crazy,” Chris said and it sounded like he was about to cry. “I wonder if Ann and I will ever get there.”  
“You could have easily got there if you had gotten married straight away. But you had to wait until it was convenient.”   
“True. It was our own fault, we could have gotten married before we turned fifty but at least we knew it was for real then.”

“If you say so…Chris, how long do think it'll take until time travel is available to everyone?” Ben asked his best friend. 

“Ben, you expect me to know that? I have literally no idea. But as you are married to the President, it should be pretty easy for you to get into one of these time travel shuttles. But why would you want to?”

“I don't know...I mean it would cool to travel to time and explore real life history but I also would like to tell 18 year old me who just bankrupted Partridge, that everything is going to work out fine.” 

“That is literally the best use of time travel that I have ever heard of,” Chris replied emphatically, “but from the movies I have watched concerning this very topic, I think it's best to keep the past as it is. After all, it's the past that makes us who we are now.”

“Very well said. Did your therapist tell you that?”

“Indeed, Ben, he did and asked him to repeat it so my phone could record and transcribe it for me. I have a whole drive full of inspirational quotes. Some of them are even from Leslie.”

Ben grinned. “Thank you, Chris.”

“You are very welcome, Ben,” Chris said and lay his hand on Ben's shoulder. “But I have to ask: for what?”

“First of all, for being a great friend. And for being my best man again.”

“Aw, I promised myself I would cry less than 30 years ago. And I have to tell you: It's not looking good.”

“Just let it out, buddy,” Ben replied and pulled Chris into a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been ages...I'm terribly sorry. I hope you enjoy this. It's soon coming to a close. Let me know what you think!


End file.
